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 […]
Mike’s hand in a resting position. Please visit my Etsy shop for my artwork for sale inspired by my autistic brother Mike at: https://autisminspiredart.etsy.com My other artwork for sale is at: https://otherartbyjack.etsy.com
This is a sketch of a detail of my brother Mike pinching his ear. He had many idiosyncratic gestures. Please visit my Etsy shop for my artwork for sale inspired by my autistic brother Mike at: https://autisminspiredart.etsy.com My other artwork for sale is at: https://otherartbyjack.etsy.com
Here, an attendant is giving my brother a helping hand when he was in his group home day program. I don’t recall what he needed help pointing at. Mike was low functioning in addition to being autistic and nonverbal. The staff once showed me a board that had all the letters in the alphabet. The […]
This is my primitive rendition of my hand, my mother’s and my brother Mike’s during our last visit to see him (trigger warning – some angry words from a frustrated sibling) in his group home in 2013. My brother Dave was there too, so it was the last gathering of all the living members of […]
My Dad loved music, he loved the violin, he loved his oldest son Michael and his family. Mike was unreachable, nonverbal, autistic and low functioning. Dad said, and I think I remember this, that Mike would chime in at the ‘surprise’ part of Haydn’s Surprise Symphony. Mike would hum classical music that Dad would play on the hi […]
This version in the Luthier Storefront series is more of a response to ‘violin’ as a prompt. The sketch below represents my Dad playing the violin while my brother Mike listened in. Mike was a nonverbal, autistic and low-functioning person, who was very difficult to communicate with. I took a photo of Dad playing to Mike, while Mike […]
This is one of many portraits I made of my brother Michael. It is a double portrait of Mike and me. I began two portraits with free-form curves and lines, inspired by Miró’s Constellation Series, a remarkable set of seemingly free-form works, filled with icons and fantastic creatures. I included ovals for two faces and the icons […]
