These are the sketches that developed as I was reflecting on my brother Mike’s life on the second anniversary of his death. I was fortunate to have my library of photographic images to help me remember particularly important moments. I reanimated some of the meaningful times using my skills to recreate the photos by hand […]
This sketch is chock full of information. I began by sketching a photo taken in 1960 on a camping trip, of me and my two brothers standing aside my parents’ 1957 Chevy. I was looking for old photographs that depicted Mike, my autistic brother, in a cheerful mood. I know there were fun times, but […]
Mike would hurt himself (presumably) when he was frustrated. Although at one point in his diagnostic journey, doctors thought he was Tourretic and his hitting himself and biting his hand was nothing more than a ‘complex motor tick‘. Whether Mike had Tourette Syndrome because those responsible for his care could not suggest a plan to […]
One of my first photos of my brother Mike was a portrait of him in his group home. His hand was posed, his wrist arched. I put my own hand in the frame, reaching out to him. On another occasion, I brought my camera, tripod and a shutter-release cable, so that I could snap a […]
The basis of this sketch is a photo my parents took of Mike and me around the year 1955. I was holding Mike’s art and looking up at him. (For those first visiting my blog, my brother Mike was autistic, low functioning and nonverbal). I don’t remember if Mike had a wandering eye at this […]
This is a preliminary drawing of a comprehensive list of images that represent my autistic brother, Mike, and my relationship with him. Included in such a compendium would be some of his unique hand gestures and postures, visual characteristics such as his mis-aligned eye, some kind of visualization of communication, and other symbols, not yet […]
This is a sketch of a photo I took wherein Mike is reaching out to take my hand. Mom, Dad and I were visiting Mike at his group home. During those times (in the late 1990s), I always took my camera. Maybe I’m cherry picking the images in this retrospective, looking for evidence that Mike […]
This sketch represents a seminal moment in my relationship with Mike and marked the beginning of a long-term photography project. My parents and I visited Mike in his interim housing (after the Willowbrook residents were re-assigned living quarters) on his 40th birthday. I took a photo of Mike, not an award winner to be sure, […]
Two years ago on July 12, my brother Michael passed away. Mike was autistic, nonverbal and very low functioning. I began this blog in 2013 to talk about my brother Michael and what it was like as the sibling of an autistic individual in the 1950s and 60s, when very few people know what autism […]
In this continuation of nature-inspired designs, I changed the palette to include more of the cooler colors. I copied textures from barks of trees as the starting point and overlaid other patterns from nature (mainly flowers). Application of watercolors followed, as a third layer of complication. Fortunately most of the final sketches were not overly […]
