Autistic Aussie an artistic hero

(MENAFN- Arab News) Sydney: artist tim sharp cannot explain why his colorful work has such appeal or how the cheeky superhero he first drew when he was a child laser beak man has won fans around the world and become a television series.

'drawing makes me really happy doesn't it mum" is all he says as his mother judy sits beside him in sydney's hyde park. 'colors can make me happy. am i doing well mum?'

sharp who turns 26 this month was first diagnosed as autistic when he was three years old. at the time his mother was told he would never talk go to school or feel real affection for her. one doctor encouraged her to put him into an institution and move on.

judy knew her son was intelligent and loving but it wasn't until she began drawing pictures to communicate with him that he seemed to 'switch on."

the first time she drew tim grabbed her hand and pushed it toward the pencil for her to pick it up and keep drawing. 'and that in itself was a major interaction he hadn't done that before."

the discovery was a breakthrough meaning day-to-day activities such as going to another child's birthday party which had once made tim deeply anxious became manageable once shown to him in pictures.

'now i was able to show him the sequence of what you do — we go we take the present we blow out the candles we sing 'happy birthday' and then we leave.

'and as soon as the candles were blown out we had to leave" she says laughing. 'but he didn't scream for the hour or so before that so it made a difference that way."

once tim starting drawing it was quickly clear he had his own quirky style.

'i don't know that it was picasso or anything like that there was just something about it for a four-year-old" judy says.

'what he tended to draw tended to have a lot of personality to it. and then he liked to watch me draw which was a big thing because i couldn't maintain his attention on anything else."

when he was 11 tim told his mum that he wanted to be his creation — laser beak man — when he grew up. it was around this time tim and his younger brother were going to a birthday party and set about making a card.

'we didn't have any money for the card. so we made the card. i said 'we'll put laser beak man on the front. and i said to tim 'what would laser beak man say?' what does he say? 'have a filthy disgusting birthday."

'and we put that inside and we gave it to our friend who happened to have a friend who worked in the disability arts scene who said 'this is just brilliant'. you have to make cards of this.''

for tim laser beak man was an extension of his love for superheroes such as batman spiderman superman and the x-men.

'he's always in my paintings" he explains of the creations which often involve a pun — such as one called 'everyone is beautiful' in which the superhero is surrounded by the number 1 or 'shut the duck up" which has a duck with its mouth tied shut and laser beak man holding a cooked bird on a platter.

in another entitled 'how to make mona lisa smile' laser beak man is pictured mooning the famous subject as he paints her portrait.