Artist, activist, and songwriter Daniel Johnston turned 50 years old, reports Brooklyn Vegan. Johnston, a schizophrenic, became somewhat of a cult hero, having his songs covered by the likes of Beck and Tom Waits and amassing a large underground following.

His most iconic piece—the “Hi, How Are You?” frog mural in Austin, Texas (also known as Jeremiah the Innocent)—is turning 18 years old this year. Of the mural’s legacy, Johnston notes that exerting change upon your immediate environment is infinitely more productive than attempting to affect change across the world.

In January 2004, the infamous “Hi, How Are You” frog mural in Austin, Texas, was set to be destroyed and replaced with windows for a new Baja Fresh chain restaurant. And Dan Soloman needed to stop it.

Writing for The Texas Observer, Soloman insists “the frog mural represents a lot of things to people in Austin. To me, it’s a monument to a time when there was no point to cynicism, and street protest was the most viable form of activism I could imagine.” And guess what? He ended up saving the frog (also known as Jeremiah the Innocent), because, he claims, exerting change upon your immediate environment is infinitely more productive than attempting to affect change across the world.