The staff was very good about letting us know when Mike had to go the the hospital. Now and then he would fall or pass out for some reason and they would call the paramedics to take him to the emergency room. They always had an attendant go with him, since Mike doesn’t speak. For those of you reading my blog for the first time, my older brother Mike is low functioning, autistic and nonverbal.

I took the picture below when I visited Mike during one of his hospitalizations. Note that he has a beard in this photograph. The staff probably thought it would look good on him; I’m sure that Mike didn’t care one way or the other.

I have hand gestures on my mind these days. It seems highly likely that had them on my mind when I took the above photograph. The position of Mike’s hands probably was the impetus for me to snap the photo. It looks like he is conducting some kind of inner symphony. Mike has a frowny face in this picture, but his mouth has the posture of amusement. Mike does look rather carefree in other pictures I took on the same day.

See what I mean. He seems to be having a great time. One might even imagine that he’s enjoying my company.

Below is my watercolor sketch of Mike’s hands from the first photograph.

Sketch – Mike in Hospital Hands
9″x12″ 140# Cold Pressed Watercolor Paper

Although this sketch is a work in progress itself, I will be merging it with my other hand studies in composing my Hand Gesture Atlas. I know that my original idea for the Hand Gesture Atlas was to look into scientific reasons for the prevalence of certain hand positions and gestures. However, my feelings at present are to present them for their emotional content. Perhaps there is a connection between the scientific  and emotional reasons for specific hand gestures and positions.