The Hands

After reading the story “The Body Politic” by Clive Barker in 2003, I became obsessed with hands. I practiced drawing my hands. I would ask strangers if I could draw their hands. I even wrote stories about my left hand being jealous of my dominant hand, the right. In my early 20’s I spent a few years drawing hands. So many hands.

Being shy and awkward made asking to draw the hands of strangers difficult. Eventually, I came up with this icebreaker, “Excuse me. I just wanted to say that you have interesting hands.” It worked most of the time.