Timothy William Sharp (9 May 1988 - ) Australian Artist
Introduction
Timothy William Sharp (born 9 May 1988) is an
Australian artist who has been diagnosed with autism and is most famous for
his creation of the colourful super hero Laser Beak Man. In 2010, Sharp's
work garnered international attention when Laser Beak Man was turned into an
eight episode animated television series screening in Australia on ABC3 TV
and it was then sold to Cartoon Network Australia, New Zealand and Asia – a
world first for a young man with autism to achieve.
Sharp is most famous for his bold and colourful artworks
completed in crayon that all feature his superhero Laser Beak Man. Many of
them are interpretations of pop culture icons or current topics of interest.
Others are representations of Sharp's literal understanding of language, a
common trait of autism. Most of them reflect Sharp's unique sense of humour
and his often irreverent opinion of people and situations.
Tim
lives with his mother Judy and has a younger brother Sam.
Sharp was born in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia in 1988. Following
concerns about his lack of language development – he only used one or two
words occasionally and exhibited some unusual behaviours and was constantly
upset – he was diagnosed with autism at the age of three. The specialist's
opinion was that the difficulties were so extensive that Tim would never
learn anything and that the best thing that could be done would be to put
him away and forget about him.
That news, delivered 29
years ago [2020], cut the mother of two to
the core.
But as she strapped her son Tim into the car she felt his little
hands wipe away the tears on her face. It was that moment, she said,
that sparked a hope in her the doctor was wrong. (Source:Sunshine Coast Daily)
His mother introduced drawing as a means of communicating with her son.
After some time of watching his mother draw stick figures to explain a
situation Sharp picked up a pencil at age four and began drawing. His mother
remembers that his very first drawing displayed his quirky individual style.
Quickly, Sharp began to develop speech and went to using 10 words within a
month, increasing to 100 words three months later, from which point his
speech continued to develop.
Following a lifelong passion and interest in superheroes, at age 11 Sharp
created his own superhero from his imagination called Laser Beak Man.
Education
Cavendish Road State High School, Holland Park Brisbane.
Experiences
At age 16, in 2004, Sharp was the only Australian selected by jury for the
world's largest arts festival for people with disabilities, VSA (Very
Special Arts) that was founded by Jean Kennedy Smith, sister of President
John F. Kennedy. Sharp travelled to Washington, D.C. for the festival and
carried the Australian flag into the opening ceremony at the John F Kennedy
performing arts centre. The ABC’s Australian Story, made a documentary about
Sharp's trip to Washington DC which screened in September 2005.
Tim with Mark Lutz from Art House
Reproductions (Source: Facebook)
Sharp's art is in demand from collectors from around the world. Preferring
to exhibit in his home country of Australia, his exhibitions are sellout
successes, attracting the attention of many prominent Australians and art
collectors from both Australia and around the world.
The National Museum of Australia in Canberra holds an exhibition of Sharp's
story and his art in its Eternity gallery. His art has been exhibited in the
Sydney Opera House.
In 2010 during an exhibition of his art at the Brisbane Powerhouse, Sharp
met visitors to the exhibition Sheldon Liebermann and his animator Igor
Coric from BigfishTV in Brisbane who suggested animating the art and
produced the series for the Australian Broadcasting Commission.
In 2012, a film about Sharp produced by Arts Queensland was screened at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art New York City as part of the Sprout Film
Festival. Also, in 2012, The Ghost Ballerinas, a rock band from Nashville,
Tennessee, asked Sharp to create the artwork for their album "Play Me on the
Radio". Together Sharp and the band members wrote the song "Laser Beak Man"
which was included on the album and made available on iTunes. The band
members were so inspired by Sharp, they wanted to help others with autism
and raise autism awareness so they put on a music festival in Tennessee
called the I Am What I Am music festival. Sharp travelled to Tennessee for
the festival.
Sharp's 2014 TEDx Sydney talk received a standing ovation in the Concert
Hall of the Sydney Opera House.
The best selling memoir of Sharp's life A Double Shot of Happiness was
published in 2015.
Did You Know?
The inspirational story of how a boy
diagnosed with severe autism went on to become one of Australia's
best-known international artists and the creator of Laser Beak Man.
A Double Shot of Happiness (from the title
of one of Tim's favourite artworks) is Judy's beautiful and
heartfelt account of Tim's odyssey from that terrible diagnosis to
his emergence as an acclaimed artist and a fulfilled, loving and
loved young man. It's a story that has involved many hurdles,
moments of despair and incredible hard work from Tim, Judy, his
brother Sam and all those who have helped them, but that is
ultimately moving, inspiring and triumphant. (Source: Allen & Unwin)
A Theatre production of Laser
Beak Man has been
developed in conjunction with Dead Puppet Society
and the New Victory Theatre at 42nd Street Studios in New York City.
(Source: Wikipedia)
When Tim Sharp was three, his
mother Judy was told he had severe autism and should be put in an
institution. Judy refused to write him off, believing he had a place in the
world.
Judy nurtured Tim’s gift for drawing and quirky eye for detail. At age 11,
he created “Laser Beak Man”, an alter ego superhero character, whose
adventures Tim turned into vibrant works of art.
25 years later, Laser Beak Man has taken Tim all over the world with
international art exhibitions and a puppet stage show at the Sydney Opera
House.
Australian Story first met Tim Sharp when he was a schoolboy. Now, 16 years
later, the next chapter in the epic tale of a mother who moved mountains for
a son who had a gift that only she could see.
Sydney Morning Herald - Journalist Lenny Ann Low
4 January 2020 Laser Beak Man is a superhero dressed in a
bright green and blue costume who shoots lasers from his red beak.
Wordless, enigmatic and immersed in a world of eye-popping colours
and pun-based humour, his lasers – powered by mythical underground
Magna Crystals – turn bad things into good. As guardian of Power
City, his beautiful, clean and pure home, this caped crusader keeps
the world safe.
But now his powers have been lost. Arch rival and former childhood
friend Peter Bartman has stolen the crystals and Laser Beak Man must
demonstrate to his friends and the community why he should get his
powers back. Will he succeed? Can Power City be rescued? Who will
save the day?
This gripping plot drives Laser Beak Man, a rollicking and
heart-swelling theatre adaptation of the cult-classic superhero
Australian artist Tim Sharp first drew 20 years ago.
Developed collaboratively by Sharp and Brisbane theatre company
Dead Puppet Society,
the show – part of the 2020 Sydney Festival – is a joyful 90-minute
mix of intricate puppetry, vivid animation, live music and
helium-powered zeppelins flying above the audience. There is even an
animated portrayal of Leigh Sales, voiced by the journalist herself.
Infused with ideas of accepting all people, protecting the planet
and effecting change in a vulnerable world, Laser Beak Man – which
was nominated for four Helpmann Awards – is about a superhero with a
difference.
Artistic director of Dead Puppet Society David Morton describes the
work as an uplifting and humour-filled adventure that explores
staying true to yourself and the importance of radical inclusion.
David Morton (left), artistic director of Dead
Puppet Society, puppet Laser Beak Man and Tim Sharp, who created
Laser Beak Man. (Source:
SMH)
“The world of Laser Beak Man extends way beyond what we have in the
play,” he says. “In our version, Laser Beak Man, in the opening
moments, loses his powers because of some mistakes that he made in
his past. So we touch on Laser Beak Man’s origin story, where he met
his best friends at kindergarten and then how he first discovered he
had this superpower.
“Our show is about what happens when those friends feel wronged and
come back and decide they’re going to take his powers from him. And
how, after a massive soul-searching journey to get his powers back,
he wins them back over.
“He a superhero, but not the typical strong man. Yes, he’s got the
cape but he’s a superhero with a difference.”
Sharp first drew Laser Beak Man when he was 11. Diagnosed with
autism at the age of three, Tim’s future was declared bleak by a
child psychologist who declared he would, “be a burden for the rest
of his life and he will end up in an institution”.
Tim’s mother, Judy Sharp, refused to accept the doctor’s view and
began intensive therapy for her son. One day, seeking ways to
communicate with him, she began drawing stick figures. Tim was
entranced. Drawing became a way for the pair to connect. A year
later he picked up a pencil and drew an elephant, his first drawing.
His verbal skills rapidly evolved and a world of communication and
creativity opened up.
Two decades later, Tim and his art have achieved a global, cult-like
status. He has shown work in international art festivals and
exhibitions, been part of documentaries and a book, Double Shot of
Happiness, and, with Judy, given motivational talks, including a
TEDx talk at the Sydney Opera House in 2014. When Laser Beak Man
debuted on ABC TV, Tim became the first artist with autism to have
an original artwork transformed into an animated TV series.
Laser Beak Man features 35 original
puppets built from laser-cut, ink-soaked balsa wood. (Source:
SMH)
The humour in Sharp’s art stems mainly from a play on words. Take
Laser Beak Man and The Barbie Queue, which features 15 Barbie dolls
lining-up for a sausage barbecued by Laser Beak Man. Or Flat White,
showing Laser Beak Man driving a steamroller over an Anglo man
outside a cafe. In Butterflies, Laser Beak Man hurls a slab of
butter out the window, and in Sweet Dreams he flies on a magic
carpet dispensing waves of lollipops and sweets across houses at
night.
Morton, and executive producer of Dead Puppet Society, Nicholas
Paine, were already fans of Tim’s work when they met him and Judy in
2013 at the Powerhouse arts centre in Brisbane. A three-year
collaboration to bring Laser Beak Man to the stage began soon after.
“The process of making this show exactly mimics what the message in
the show is,” Paine says. “The method of inclusion where Tim is an
active collaborator in the creation of the work and his ability is
equal to ours and his talent. We don’t see any of his disability as
a holdback for what a fantastic artist he is and his ability to make
great work.”
Morton says it felt like working with a collaborator who had been
working on the show for 20 years. “Whenever we were unsure what a
character would do, Tim knew,” he says. “Whenever we were unsure
about what a thing should look like, Tim always knew. We were all
trying to do justice to his world and his creation and it made for
such an extraordinary experience because we all had something to
work for.”
With 35 original puppets, each hand-built from laser-cut, ink-soaked
balsa wood, the show features a team of puppeteers from Australian
and the US and is accompanied by live music composed by
Sam Cromack
of Ball Park Music.
“It plays like a rock concert with a story,” Morton says. “Laser
Beak Man doesn’t speak, something Tim was very insistent on, so the
band express a lot of the emotion and the narrative role of him as a
character through the music.”
Despite the puppets and big, bright colours, Laser Beak Man works
best for audiences aged eight and up. “The humour in it is very
adult,” Morton says. “Not in a way that’s too rude for young people
but adults love this show because it’s witty and so funny and the
pop-rock score that goes with it is unbelievable. It’s a feast that
crosses the generations and, for 10- to 12-year-olds and their
parents, it will just tick every box.”
Australian
Curriculum General Capability:Critical and creative thinking
There are a lot of resources that
can be adapted without going to the play.
Imitating
Tim using Australian Slang
Primary
Middle
Secondary
Australian
Curriculum General Capability:Critical and creative thinking
Australian
Curriculum General Capability:
Literacy Australian
Curriculum General Capability:Personal and social capability
Cooperative
Learning Activity
Background
Tim Sharp takes things literally. Consider the term “flat white”.
Most of us would imagine our morning coffee, perhaps being served to
us by a bearded barista. Sharp, however, sees a steamroller and a
rather unfortunate Anglo person.
Sharp is an artist with autism, who communicates his unique
perspective on the world through quirky, hilarious and colourful
drawings.The hymn Then Sings My Soul
translates to a shoe opening like a mouth, spewing forth music.(Source:
The Guardian)