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 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
Posted by at
Labels: , , ,

1 comment:

  1. Adelaide DupontMarch 19, 2011 at 9:55 PM

    Or basketball or baseball or any other sport you could think of.

    (Mad March!)

    Love this light on the specialist subjects.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)