Keychain A Day: March 2011

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 194

Cyclops: blind contour drawing of 1/154 of Kelt's bobble heads.

A new project that I just started! These drawings are blind except when I briefly look at the paper to set the pen. This series represents Kelt's uninhibited drawing style and enhanced visual skills. To view more, click the bobble head label to the right.

Day 193

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Today I watched Larry and Tracy from the documentary Wretches & Jabberers on The New York Times' live stream TimesTalks. Here are a couple of their responses:

Larry, what do you express with your art?

"Potentially I might be called an outsider artist giving me cache in the art world, but I really paint from the inside institutions that I feel in my world as an autistic person making art to meet images with feelings."

Tracy, when did you realize that you had communication problems and how did it make you feel?

"That was going back to my earliest memory as a young boy. I knew I was not like other kids. It made me angry and I withdrew. I had tantrums. As a result not being able to show I understood was a jail sentence."

Overall, it was a great lecture. Can't wait to see the film. If you're interested, you can also look at our tweets.

Day 192

Yesterday Kelt started taking melatonin to help his sleep problems that developed several years ago. On a typical weeknight he gets 5-6 hours of sleep, which ruins his school day. He's unable to focus and sometimes falls asleep in class. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, melatonin is a hormone that regulates other hormones and helps control our sleep cycle. Discussed in the Science News section of Autism Speaks, the Journal of Child Neurology published a study by Vanderbilt University School of Medicine that suggests that melatonin supplements can help people with autism with sleep problems:

"Melatonin levels are low in children with autism, which suggested that taking a melatonin supplement could help them with sleep. 'Rather than treating them with some other drug that would promote sleep, [we could] give them what they're missing,' said Beth Malow, M.D., M.S., senior author of the study and a neurologist specializing in sleep at VU" (Autism Speaks).

We'll see how it works for Kelt. In this study, 25% of the children (ages 2-18) stopped having sleep problems and 60% reported an improvement (107 children total) within 2-6 months.

Day 191

Day 190

Some of my friends recommended that I talk about autism in the media, specifically in Parenthood, Community, and The Big Bang Theory. I haven’t seen Community or Big Bang, but occasionally watch Parenthood and recently watched the episode when Max, an 8-year-old with Asperger Syndrome, discovers that he has autism. This video shows his parents explaining autism for the second time after being unprepared when Max overheard an earlier conversation. They are accurate, simple, and use constructive language; overall the scene is uplifting and realistic. They also bring up Freaks, Geeks, and Asperger Syndrome by 13-year-old Luke Jackson, which is where I got the idea to read the book. Having Asperger Syndrome himself, Jackson believes that:

“A child should be told and the sooner the better… Although a child may go through [the] period of asking questions or being angry and upset, in my mind that is still no excuse not to tell them. Parents, you are not protecting them because feeling as if you are a ‘freak’ is horrible at any time and much worse when you don’t know the reasons why” (30, 37).

Day 189

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Day 188

Got this keychain today. 5,902!

Newest work in progress (lidded slab box). He's becoming quite the artist!

Day 187

two chains!

Day 186

Today Kelt got this keychain and 2 others from our grandparents' friend.

Now he has 5,901!

Another quote from Freaks, Geeks and Asperger Syndrome. I'm glad I'm reading this book because it seems like Kelt and Luke Jackson (author) have a lot in common. In the section, Strings and Things, Jackson describes his love for wrapping, which is also an activity that Kelt's always enjoyed.

"Another thing that I loved to do, still do actually, is to tie string everywhere. I like the idea of chain reactions - one thing happening which triggers off another, which triggers off another and so on... It's a bit hard to explain how rewarding and satisfying it is to tie things together. It is just one of those hypnotic things that distract me from the real world for a while and is so much fun" (52-53).

Our 1st and 6th sculpture pieces.
Out of the eight we've done, these have been his favorites.

Day 185

Today Kelt got this keychain and two others from his wrestling coach from
the NCAA Wrestling Championship in Philadelphia! Now he has 5,898!

Day 184

I found an explanation about collections in Freaks, Geeks and Asperger Syndrome and thought it was perfect for Kelt and the blog:

"Many Asperger Syndrome (AS) people, if not all, become very attached to certain things. That's what I mean by a collection. Lots of us like to have sets of things that we can organize and categorize and line up. It's not only an AS thing, I just think that it means something slightly different for AS people. In general I would say that collecting something is a pretty harmless way of feeling secure and no one should stop anyone from doing this. Organizing something is a wonderful way of shaking off the feeling of chaos that comes from living in such a disorganized world" (50).

Last summer I worked with a boy with autism that constantly drew vinegar bottles. He was nonverbal so I never learned why, but thought the drawings were fascinating. It's a little different than a collection, but creates the same feelings of repetition and security.

Day 183

Kelt was going through old work today for his senior portfolio and came across these drawings from 2009. This is our family! Classic example of Kelt's humor. (Click drawings to enlarge.)

Day 182

Day 181

Friday, March 18, 2011

Most people with autism have an obsession or favorite topic, or as Luke Jackson calls it, a specialist subject. Because of March Madness, I thought this was an interesting point:

"Q: When is an obsession not an obsession?

A: When it is about football.

How unfair is that?! It seems that our society fully accepts the fact that a lot of men and boys 'eat, sleep and breathe' football and people seem to think that if someone doesn't, then they are not fully male. Stupid" (47)! -Freeks, Geeks and Asperger Syndrome

Day 180

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Day 179

Piece #8, rubber bands

This is the 8th piece for our new project. We haven't written the artist statement yet or figured out the specifics, but want to work with a variety of materials, such as wax, glue, and clay, etc., to see what Kelt likes. I'm curious to observe his process and learn if sculpture is a medium that he enjoys. I'm also interested in his relationship with the different materials. So far he's enjoyed wrapping and tying the most.

The materials are also important because people with autism often have unique responses to sensory stimuli. Examples include high threshold for pain, oversensitivity to sounds or being touched, exaggerated reactions to light or odors, or fascination with certain stimuli, etc. Hypersensitivities and/or hyposensitivities vary depending on the individual; for people with autism the continuum can range from no reaction to responses in all five senses.

This material was inspired by friend and artist Nickolus Meisel.

teeny
Lamination, rubber bands, and thread on black wall.
10" x 12", 2007

I surrender
Mixed Media Installation
Edmonds Arts Festival Museum Gallery
Edmonds, WA
2009

www.nickolusmeisel.com

Day 178

Kelt on the potter's wheel during art class.

Day 177

Monday, March 14, 2011

I recently started reading this book to learn more about teenagers with autism. Jackson was only 13 when he wrote it! Here are some cartoons from the book:

"Asperger Syndrome comes under the umbrella of autism. That's quite a useful way to think of the autistic spectrum - as an umbrella with lots of people under it all in different places. The trouble with that analogy is that some people are being rained on a lot harder than others and that doesn't really happen with an umbrella" (20).

"For autism and Asperger Syndrome, people have a 'triad of impairments.' These impairments are in communication, social interaction and imagination. Repetitive behaviors, obsessions and sensory problems are also often part of the problem, though not always present. Mum told me that she once read somewhere that someone compared these problems with an equalizer and all people on the autistic spectrum have different levels for each problem" (21-22).

"I think Tony Attwood wrote about labels being signposts. Signposts usually point people in the right direction, so by not telling people about Asperger Syndrome, no direction is being given about how to help" (26).

"In some ways, gay people must have the same worries as those with Asperger Syndrome, when it comes to telling others that they are different from others" (38).