Keychain A Day: Day 131

In 1998 my youngest brother, Kelton, was diagnosed with autism, a developmental disability that affects communication and social interaction. Autism currently affects 1/88 people in the United States. Kelton is a talented individual who runs cross-country and track, wrestles, plays the drums, loves history, and collects bobble heads and keychains.

This year Kelton decided to enroll in his first art class where he discovered his skill for drawing. His unorthodox style made me reconsider my artwork and examine the differences and similarities that exist between our perspectives. According to Paul Collins’ Not Even Wrong: Adventures in Autism, artists are four times more likely to have autism in their families. Considering the number of artists in my family, this statistic made me question the similarities that exist between Kelton and me. For this reason, we have decided to draw one of his 6,481 keychains a day for one year. These drawings will be as simple and uninhibited as possible. This project will explore our individual perspectives and examine the similarities that exist between us as artists.

Day 131

"My memory is like film. That is why I am really good at remembering things, like conversations I have written down in this book, and what people were wearing, and what they smelled like, because my memory has a smelltrack which is like a soundtrack" (p. 76).

-The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

I was excited when I read this because it perfectly describes Kelt, especially the part about the smelltrack. He has a photographic memory that can remember the smallest details. For example, he always notices when I move a keychain. I try to do it secretly and put it back where I found it, but he always knows. Besides being visual, he also has an amazing sense of smell, which seems more accurate than his photographic memory. He'll smell something that instantly triggers a memory, which can go as far back as the 90s (born in '93).

Day 131

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