Language: English
At the age of 6, Clayden Botes was diagnosed with Autism. After a year of going through intensive Occupational therapy, it took a Neuro Psychiatrist only a few minutes to diagnose Clayden & he was sent home with a prescription for medication and told to come back in a year’s time. No support or reveals was offered to know how to deal with this new diagnosis we knew nothing about.
School was a massive challenge as schools for Autistic kids, especially kids that can not read or write is almost non existing so we did the best we can but it was during this time Clayden was bullied a lot, not only by kids but teachers as well. Not understanding stimming Clayden was send to sit outside the classroom almost daily by teachers as he’s disruptive. It was during this time Clayden started Doodling- a form of drawing.
Then Covid happened and due to the lack of structure & routine in schools mom decided to take Clayden out of school. It was during this time when the stress & pressure was off him, his art went from good to excellent.
It was also during this time newspapers, television stations & magazines started noticing Clayden. He got invited to several interviews and quickly became known as the Autistic artist in South Africa.
I, mom Antoinette then decided after a long discussion with him that instead of returning to mainstream school because there was no autistic schools to attend we would rather concentrate on what Clayden is good at & what he want to do & that is becoming a great artist & giving him to tools to achieve that.
Over the course of 5 years Clayden has achieved so much. A while back he was recognized as one of 25 Most amazing autistic Artists around the world. Not only is Clayden a artist but he’s also a amazing public speaker talking mostly about Bullying & his journey living with Autism.
At 17 this incredibly talented self-taught Artist has his sight set on relocating to the USA in the hopes that his talent will be recognized & he can be a asset to the country in his field.
Clayden has got several skills, his most favorite digital art but he’s also a painter, he design & makes costumes & he can if needed sculpture, but his preferred art form is digital design. He’s currently busy with his first comic book he will publish himself soon. There are many articles online will send as much as I can.
Interviews
- https://www.dailyvoice.co.za/western-cape/autistic-teen-artist-set-for-comic-con-
- https://www.spectrumlife.org/blog/25-amazing-autistic-artists-around-the-world
- https://www.goodthingsguy.com/people/autistic-artist-clayden-botes-rises-from-strength-to-strength/
- https://www.dailyvoice.co.za/western-cape/autistic-teen-artist-set-for-comic-con-d39d671e-fd5a-406a-8a92-f1bf833452ff
- https://www.beautifulnews.com/14-year-old-left-school-doodle-his-way-success
- https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/western-cape/meet-cape-towns-14-year-old-autistic-artist-2cf1e510-dd8d-447a-8933-b3b9b0000297
- https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/two-kzn-teenagers-with-autism-inspire-through-painting/
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