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 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.

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