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 169



I was going through this book and came
across a characteristic that reminded me of Kelt:

"When I am not drawn in by another person's choice of topic, I often start thinking of things that I am more interested in and don't hear anything they say" (2).

In terms of social interaction this is one of his biggest problems. You can immediately tell when he loses interest because his eyes start to wander, interrupts with a new topic, or sometimes just walks away. Besides communication this tendency also affects his learning and is the main reason why he can't go to a traditional college. Even though he loves history and spends hours researching he'd be bored as a history major because he's only interested in certain topics. He'd also have a hard time completing two years of general education requirements, such as math, science, and English, because he wouldn't have the drive to finish the coursework. Unfortunately bachelor degrees aren't this specific; if they were, just like wrestling, he'd be one of the best.
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