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Nickolas Hadzis won't give you the shirt off his back, but he will paint you another one.

For several months now, the 48-year-old artist has been creating a line of hand-painted tees and other shirts for men and women at his Distillery District studio in the Case Goods Building (No. 74, studio 303).

He shares space with two other artists. His cubbyhole includes a blue reproduction turntable that's playing David Bowie. "I'm old-school," he says. "I kept all my vinyl from when I was a teen."

Born in Toronto of Greek/Macedonian heritage, Hadzis is the classic starving artist. He still lives with his parents. (They're divorced, so he splits his time with them.) He has no phone and doesn't drive a car.

Some of his creations are done with fabric and acrylic paints; some are done with Sharpies. "They are hand-dyed, hand-cut and drawn," he says. "The shirts take 32 to 40 hours to do with a Sharpie, and then I paint them."

Custom shirts range from $300 to $1,000 (prices are negotiable). The custom tees are $30 to $50 — he is taking a screen-printing workshop to make his works more affordable.

The latter "are a steal for an original piece. I sold my first shirt for $300 — it paid my Metropass for three months."

We covet the circus/clown shirt, which isn't for sale.

"I did it when I was 19 and it got me into art school," he explains. "It was my dad's chef shirt from the ‘60s when he worked at the Cava-Bob. It took me a year — I drew the clowns from black-and-white photos and coloured them in the ‘80s. I left the back plain.

Hadzis went to OCAD studying painting, drawing and sculpture. "I graduated in the ‘80s but didn't commit to being an artist full time until 2001," he explains.

He worked in retail and bussing tables at Metro Toronto Convention Centre and had his first show in 2001 at Gallery Neubacher. "I had 50 oil paintings and I performed with my accordion," Hadzis recalls. "I started the fashion seriously this year. I love fashion. Being an artist I have a high sense of fashion, but I don't consider myself a fashion designer. I'm learning to sew."