>> What happens to an artist
when one of the very tools he
uses -- his hand is changed in
an instant?
>> Jeffrey brown visited a
sculptor who has to pivot how he
does his art in the art itself.
This is at the intersection of
medicine and the Arden got --
this is in our ongoing arts and
cultures series.
>> This is a process of
discovery as always.
It was a year ago may that
powers faced the greatest
challenge of his life.
>> I assumed it was a double
tragedy.
Likewise I lost my time and an
artist.
Now, powers has grown up in and
around Chicago.
Early on, he had an
apprenticeship.
He became known for shaping
multimedia blocks into collages
and large-scale installations.
A 50 foot tower of welded steal
in Belgium.
Terminal is an eight-foot sphere
made from whole urethane blocks.
But last spring, at his home in
his Hudson valley community, he
was using a table saw to make a
piece for offense.
The saw slipped and he lost his
ring finger and thumb.
His index and middle fingers
were very badly injured.
>> I have grown up with people
with hand injuries but I have
never seen one the severe and
strange.
>> His wife heard the scream and
called for help.
>> Even in the 911 call, I said
my sculptor is an artist, he
works with his hand.
He needs a hand surgeon.
>> After the multiple surgeries
that followed, nurse cut and
reattached along time of
recovery began.
>> You are a sculptor, an
artist, you use your hands.
You always use your hands but
how much did you think about
your hands?
Cracks are used to joke at my
feet are like dogs, they are
loyal, they obey and I know they
will be there for me.
My hands are like cats.
I have no idea what they do all
day.
They are getting into trouble.
They are doing stuff without me.
They are constantly exploring.
I had a sense of my head as
characters in my life.
-- Hands as characters in my
life.
What I did not have was how much
they shape the way I think.
>> However hands think,
especially the hands of an
artist.
Howard says he has always
approached art through what he
calls a cultivated naivete.
A sense of trying things without
knowing where they might lead.
Without expectation of success.
He is convinced that is helping
him navigate his way now.
A sense of humor helps.
One of the first thing he did
was bury his thumb in a tiny
cough and in his yard complete
with a thumb stone.
But the hard work of remapping
of a new hand has involved trial
and ever.
Regular sessions at handspring,
a clinic for upper extremity
rehabilitation in middletown,
New York.
>> Very little coordination.
>> Deborah is an occupational
therapist and wears a prosthesis
herself.
>> Many times, they will talk
about the very functional
aspects, teaching them how to
hold a fork and knife, how to
complete their fasteners ends
zipped their jackets.
Especially if you live somewhere
cold like where we live but we
oftentimes don't get to talk
about people about the social
functions.
>> In New York City, powers is
also working with the hand
surgeon with powers who worked
there from the early days.
He says the mind-body connection
is a particularly delicate
balance for someone who uses
their hands for a living.
>> Having a very structural
sculpting background, he
understands anatomy and that is
what fingers are.
Some of the most complex
sculptures there are.
They are functional sculptures.
He just understands the anatomy
without even knowing the
anatomy.
I think he looks at the finger
and imagines what the anatomy
should be.
Because there was the question
of the look of this new hand.
If the body is now altered, what
should it look like?
How can it be sculpted?
This captured his imagination.
>> He chose a prosthesis that
specializes in finger and
partial hand amputees.
One that is not a natural hand.
>> I was offered very realistic
silicon fingers.
There was the only prosthetic I
would have been offered 10 years
ago.
It is just enough alike to be
kind of creepy.
I would rather look at the hand
and go through the work.
This is a great comfort.
Because people should not be
afraid to tell their
practitioners what they want.
I am sure that John will be even
more personalized in his own
technology there.
He even finds himself
identifying more and more with
it.
In the rehab process, we may go
from seeing these devices as
being tools, these devices
become a part of something else.
Quite what really attracts me to
it is re-creating normal
function but a new aesthetic, a
different aesthetic.
Not a human aesthetic.
We are not trying to re-create
what we already have.
>> Powers is tackling the
aesthetics question in his own
way.
He made a cast of his hands and
sent digital scans two artist
friends, inviting creative
solutions for custom prostheses.
He calls the project and he has
received dozens of responses.
>> The idea of having these gaps
in my hand and filling them with
ideas, I wanted to see what my
friend would do.
It is an interesting problem.
If someone approached me with
that one, I would have a great
time.
I think I would.
>> He continues to work on his
own heart.
He is finishing this piece
called reach.
Commissioned by one of his
anesthesiologist and he has
bigger things in mind.
Because the bigger thing is to
have this be a proposal model
for ludicrous alarms culture.
>> Imagine this piece would be
nine feet tall.
>> Ambitions for a new art with
a new hand including a return to
woodwork in the near future.
For the pbs newshour, I am
Jeffrey brown and Hudson valley,
New York.
>> Fascinating and so inspiring
to all of us.
Crisis cities across Missouri
are cutting back on the 911
service turning over their
services to other government
entities or cutting back on
staff.
This reflects a growing trend
across the country.