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 212


Tonight I watched the first volume of a 6-part series, Autism Now, on PBS Newshour about a 6-year-old boy with autism (Nick) and his family. I think the first part was well done and accurately represented a number of families that have a child with autism.

I love this frame because of the cars. From my experience it seems like people with autism like to line things up because of the order, repetition, and security that's involved. It’s funny because I think most people like this type of organization, for example Things Organized Neatly and Collection A Day. Organizing, categorizing, and lining things up is often associated with autism, but it seems like most people find this order visually pleasing.

ALISON MACNEIL: Nick was irritable, crying, inconsolable and now is not on track developmentally at all. He's gone backward.
So we went from a 15-month appointment where this child was A-OK, supposedly, and given the MMR, the DTaP and the Hib vaccines.
People say to me, Alison, it's a coincidence. Alison, how do you know this happened? Well, it's impossible for me to know. But what I will say is this: It was not a coincidence that my child was diagnosed with autism at the same time that his whole system shut down. Something happened to my child.

My family has the same question. Kelt’s behavior didn’t start to change until he was vaccinated. There is no valid scientific evidence that supports this theory, but he was definitely different. It seems that some people have a predisposition for autism, which stays dormant unless triggered by an external stimulus. The MMR, DTaP, and Hib given together might be too much for some children and this combination, with a predisposition, could possibly be the catalyst that shuts the system down.


Watch the full episode. See more PBS NewsHour.
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