Declan Lindsay can turn a handful of clay into a figure borne from his imagination in just a few minutes.
He also draws — creating worlds full of characters.
"These are some characters I've drawn from my 'madnezs island universe', the universe I have created," he said.
"These are people that live there, I'm interested in any life, actually."
Mr Lindsay works out of a Hobart art studio and gallery, called Artosaurus after his love of dinosaurs.
"I own it, people come here to see my art," he said.
The 18-year-old has autism and has recently finished school.
The studio provides support for artists with disabilities to hone their craft and help them make money from their work.
Mr Lindsay helps other artists and students in the studios and has his own space to work in when he wants time alone.
"I have my own little corner, people at least try avoiding the area," he said.
Filling a gap
Mr Lindsay's mother Sara Lindsay had the idea for setting up the studio after struggling to find an art school or disability service that was the right fit for his needs.
"As a parent with a child who's just about to finish college, I was quite nervous about what the future held for him," Ms Lindsay said.
"I had been looking around for a while trying to find services or supported workplace environments that might suit him but hadn't been able to find anything."
Ms Lindsay set up shop with her friend Rhonda McLaughlin, who had a background in community services.
They launched Artosaurus in May, including a gallery, shop and two teaching studios.
Ms McLaughlin said the studio helped fill a gap for artists with disabilities.
"For Declan, what was already there was a lot of traditional disability services that were targeted at people with fairly profound intellectual disability, there probably wasn't a lot there for people who were aspiring toward a particular career but didn't have the support in place to get to that path," she said.
"Declan is a great artist in his own right, he needs support to continue to learn and continue to develop and this is where he sees his career and there were no services around that were going to support anybody to commercialise their art in that kind of way."
Providing help to sell artists' work
The social enterprise offers a place for local artists to sell their work and a resident artist program for NDIS participants.
Ms McLaughlin said they wanted to make art inclusive and accessible.
"One of the things that we were thinking about when we started initially was that we weren't trying to set up a disability space, we knew that there were people with different types of disabilities that needed the space or this kind of support network but we very much try to emphasise that we're an art gallery and art studios primarily and we also happen to be inclusive and find other ways for other people to participate," she said.
Artists can also get help to commercialise their work.
"It is an option for people who want to sell that there's an outlet here that's going to support them to do that and support them [to know] how," Ms McLaughlin said.
"So we've run a few workshops for artists in the community that don't know how to sell their work, that includes things like how you package your work, how you price it, how do you place a value on yourself and the work you do, which is hard for anyone to do."
Despite only being in its first year of operation, the team is already thinking about expansion around more areas in Hobart and further afield.
"I hope that it continues this trajectory where people are coming to us all the time and wanting to come and join Artosaurus," Ms Lindsay said.
"Eventually, ultimately, I'd love this to go nationwide, there are a few similar things out there but it would be really lovely to have this out there as an option for so many more people."
