‘I spent some time with Nathan and Claudie at REDinc and was blown away by his beautiful art work and his gentle presence.”
Nathan lives in Lismore with his mum. He has 6 brothers and one sister who he loves very much.
Nathan had an exhibition at the Lismore Regional Gallery in the last show before it moved to the new site. He had a lot artworks in that exhibition and he sold 12 artworks. The exhibition was called Superheroes and Monsters.
He got an Accessible Arts Small Arts grant to develop the exhibition and received mentoring from Claudie and local screen printer Jeremy Austin, to support him to get that exhibition up in the gallery. Because of that, Bus Stop Films who are an inclusive film company in Sydney asked Accessible Arts whether they knew an artist who could provide some illustrations for a film they were making. The film is called ‘Shakespeare in Tokyo’ and it’s about a young man with Down Syndrome who goes to Tokyo. The character in the movie is an artist and Nathan did the illustrations for the artist’s sketchbook, so in the film if you see the sketchbook it’s Nathan work. They commissioned him to do the work and they paid an artist fee which was awesome. He’s a working artist. Nathan had different art challenges with that work, as they asked him to try things different from his usual style and he really stretched himself as an artist, he was super focused when he was doing those drawings last year.
A sub section of that company is Taste Creative who are content makers and they got a contract to do an educational video clip for Down Syndrome Australia about Inclusivity. Down Syndrome Australia want to get the message across that everybody’s different but they’re also the same and it’s a video clip with an Art vs. Science song behind it.
Nathan’s favourite thing to draw is superheroes. He likes that they are strong and he invents his own superheroes in his art works too. He also has a huge collection of superhero t-shirts. Nathan’s works have been printed onto t-shirts ( I bought the one of Frankenstein holding a mermaid and it’s brilliant). He also loves music, especially Michael Jackson and bowling with his mates. He comes everyday to REDinc. except for Mondays where he does literacy, art, bowling and he also goes to the gym.
Last Friday Nathan got a grant from the Quick Response Grant from Regional Arts NSW which is fantastic.
He is attending the Australian launch of the short film Shakespeare in Tokyo on Wednesday 25 July at 6pm at Event Cinemas in George St Sydney.
The Grant will support Nathan to go to Sydney, pay for the airfares and accomodation for him and his mother Carmel to go to the premiere of the film. Nathan’s Sister Kerrie will also go to Sydney too to see the film. Nathan will have an exhibition at the launch and he will sit on the panel as the guest artist. The film was launched in June in Tokyo, but this is the Australian launch. While he’s there he will meet with the Taste Creative people to show the designs he had been working on for the Down Syndrome Australia animation.
Nathan and his mum sometimes go on cruises for a holiday and when he had the Superheroes and Monsters exhibition at the Lismore Regional Gallery his goal was to make enough money to put towards a holiday with his mum.
Nathan originally went to Wilsons Park School and has been at REDinc. for the last 17 years. He is now 36. He adores his mum, Carmel and she is very proud of him. I think all the Northern Rivers are very proud of him. Go Nathan!