Tess Hider, 22, wants her soft sculptures to be colourful and fun - and to use their cuteness to say some serious things.
In a gallery space at RMIT University in Melbourne, she has sewn a spine in red, pink and white from felt and polar fleece, so long that it stretches to the ceiling.
Part of the sculpture rests on a light blue plinth that suggests a hospital bed, while a hand-sewn felt window made from ever-larger circles represents radiating pain.
"It's a window to the life of a disabled person... I want people to see in to a world they might not experience," she told AAP.
In 2019 at the age of 17, Hider was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, a form of arthritis in her spine, and has had to undergo a series of medical procedures while finishing her fine art degree.
Her sculptures feature in the 2024 graduate showcase opening Wednesday at the university's city campus.
Like other students, Hider doesn't expect to make a living from art on finishing her degree, and hopes to become an art therapist.
Lecturer in sculpture Fleur Summers says a second job is a reality for graduating artists, especially during a cost of living crisis.
"Rents are really high for housing and if they don't have space at home, they're actually renting a studio as well, so it's a really difficult place to be," she told AAP.
This bears out Macquarie University research released earlier in 2024, which found being an artist in Australia is as tough as it's ever been.
It showed artists - from painters to musicians and dancers - earned a gross income of $54,500 in 2021-22 on average, about a quarter less than the average income for the wider workforce.
Less than half of that was earned through their creative output, with the rest coming from various other work.
But Summers says the 2024 crop of graduates is a diverse bunch, with the capacity to produce major artworks for the public.
Ceramicist Jade Power, 33, is another graduate juggling her art with work, as a library technician.
Some of her pieces on display use a burnout casting technique in which porcelain is wrapped around lengths of rope, which has burned away in the kiln to leave a mass of cracked tubular shells.
"Because my work is not functional, it's tricky to see how I can make a living from art," she said.
Representation by a commercial gallery is a dream for the mature-age student, but she says ultimately her work is about creative fulfilment.
Art is a measure of humanity regardless of whether people are buying it, she said.
"It's how people relate to one another, it's how people express themselves, I just don't think we're human unless we have art," Power said.
"It's disappointing that potentially society is getting to a point where we don't have the money to fund it, but that's not really going to stop me."
Installed near Hider's soft sculpture is an ovoid kinetic artwork by Angela Sexton, titled When Push Comes to Shove.
An oval of wood that fits perfectly inside a steel frame, its name is literally an invitation to push at the shapes and watch them revolve in all directions.
Other standout pieces in the ceramics gallery include Madelyn McKenzie's An Ode To My Ballerina, a tangle of clay inspired by decorative arts such as Victorian era wrought iron, and Heidi Kwong's earthy stoneware pieces Subtle Grounds.
In the exhibition's printmaking section, Sara Cope takes a lighter approach, referencing her childhood on a farm at Byawatha in Victoria's north east.
Her photographic etchings have been developed from images of chook scratchings, in a series that puns on the art of printmaking with the title What a Relief.
* The RMIT fine art graduate showcase runs until Sunday.
