BROOKS‐Erica May, Poet and artist. On November 20, 1977. A memorial service under the care of the Albany Meeting of Religious Society of Friends will be held December 4, at PM at Channing Hall, Unitarian Church of Albany, 405 Washington Ave., Albany. N.Y. Contributions In her memory may be made to the American Friends Service Committee, 160 North IS St., Philadelphia, Pa.. 19102.
Erica May Brooks was the daughter of Howard and Marie Louise Brooks. Erica came to America on Sept 21, 1921 at age 27, from Weybridge England.
Erica May Brooks began her research as a young woman in her native England, where she was already both artist and teacher, and continued it in this country when she came here in 1921. Now, she has in her studio apartment at 180 Washington Ave. about 90 volumes of data she has been collecting. Feeling that the human hand might be the key to understanding creative power, she set out to learn all she could about its structure and its work. Added to her goal of establishing an exact science of what she calls "chiro-graphology" was a goal of a "museum of hands" casts and hand-graphs of the hands of the great, which she believes would be important to future generations in their study of the development of man.
She was, at the same time, continuing her artistic work and her teaching. She studied and taught art in England's private schools, was for 12 years art director at the Friends' Seminary in New York, taught poetry and oral English for three years at the Walt Whitman School in New York, and art at St. Agnes School in Loudonville for nearly eight years.
In 1934, she painted "In the Beginning," a series of 17 paintings of the Creation, shown many times since its debut at the Jean Cause Gallery in New York
The pictures of the creation as molded by majestic hands, along with the titles that, read consecutively, are a poem of Creation, were inspired after having heard Anna Hempstead Branch read her poem, "In the Beginning".
In these, she combined her study of hand structure with art. The American Encyclopedia of Biography says they are " . . .even richer in quality through the personal development made possible by her scientific research".
Miss Brooks believes the shape of a person's hands and the difference, between each, are a definite index to his mental make-up. She says that, as no two people have hands alike, it is almost as true that the hands of a single person are dissimilar. She has concluded that the left hand shows inherited traits (in a right-handed person) and the right, reaction to circumstances. She divides hand structures into elements roughly corresponding to earth and wind. If your fingers are short and stubby, she would explain you are earth-attuned and born to action, sight, touch, and taste. If your fingers are long and slender, she would say you have wind-attuned hands and belong with the thinkers and dreamers, that you should at-tune your life to thought and sound. From the undeveloped hands of a child, through the general structure and type, she can furnish parents with some idea of what mother nature had in mind for the child's future, she says. She is now working on articles on gerontology and juvenile guidance commissioned by an American magazine.
In sculpture, she executed on commission the bas-relief of Fr, Isaac Jogues that was un-veiled in Ticonderoga during last year's Hudson-Champlain celebration. In this work too, she has a story of inspiration. She had begun the likeness of the Catholic explorer who discovered Lake George and was later martyred at Auriesville, showing a prayer book and a rosary clasped in his hand. Suddenly, she says, "it came to me like a flash that this could not be true, and I substituted a wooden cross. Shortly thereafter, scanning Weise's "History of the City of Albany New York," she came upon a quotation from a letter written by Father Jogues while sheltered in Albany and speaking of "... a wooden cross which I had made to keep me in mind of my Savior’s suffering."
Erica Brooks is a member of English, American, State. and local artistic and literary societies. Her activities extend from her art and guidance work to therapeutic work with the blind and crippled children and humane work for animals. As a personal symbol, she uses a pyramid within the circle of friendship. Its two lower points are poetry and art. Its pinnacle is her guidance work. Of the three, she is recognized most as an artist; she loves poetry the most; but she considers guidance the apex of her life work
Times Union, Jan 5th, 1960
Erica May Brooks was the daughter of Howard and Marie Louise Brooks. Erica came to America on Sept 21, 1921 at age 27, from Weybridge England.
Erica May Brooks began her research as a young woman in her native England, where she was already both artist and teacher, and continued it in this country when she came here in 1921. Now, she has in her studio apartment at 180 Washington Ave. about 90 volumes of data she has been collecting. Feeling that the human hand might be the key to understanding creative power, she set out to learn all she could about its structure and its work. Added to her goal of establishing an exact science of what she calls "chiro-graphology" was a goal of a "museum of hands" casts and hand-graphs of the hands of the great, which she believes would be important to future generations in their study of the development of man.
She was, at the same time, continuing her artistic work and her teaching. She studied and taught art in England's private schools, was for 12 years art director at the Friends' Seminary in New York, taught poetry and oral English for three years at the Walt Whitman School in New York, and art at St. Agnes School in Loudonville for nearly eight years.
In 1934, she painted "In the Beginning," a series of 17 paintings of the Creation, shown many times since its debut at the Jean Cause Gallery in New York
The pictures of the creation as molded by majestic hands, along with the titles that, read consecutively, are a poem of Creation, were inspired after having heard Anna Hempstead Branch read her poem, "In the Beginning".
In these, she combined her study of hand structure with art. The American Encyclopedia of Biography says they are " . . .even richer in quality through the personal development made possible by her scientific research".
Miss Brooks believes the shape of a person's hands and the difference, between each, are a definite index to his mental make-up. She says that, as no two people have hands alike, it is almost as true that the hands of a single person are dissimilar. She has concluded that the left hand shows inherited traits (in a right-handed person) and the right, reaction to circumstances. She divides hand structures into elements roughly corresponding to earth and wind. If your fingers are short and stubby, she would explain you are earth-attuned and born to action, sight, touch, and taste. If your fingers are long and slender, she would say you have wind-attuned hands and belong with the thinkers and dreamers, that you should at-tune your life to thought and sound. From the undeveloped hands of a child, through the general structure and type, she can furnish parents with some idea of what mother nature had in mind for the child's future, she says. She is now working on articles on gerontology and juvenile guidance commissioned by an American magazine.
In sculpture, she executed on commission the bas-relief of Fr, Isaac Jogues that was un-veiled in Ticonderoga during last year's Hudson-Champlain celebration. In this work too, she has a story of inspiration. She had begun the likeness of the Catholic explorer who discovered Lake George and was later martyred at Auriesville, showing a prayer book and a rosary clasped in his hand. Suddenly, she says, "it came to me like a flash that this could not be true, and I substituted a wooden cross. Shortly thereafter, scanning Weise's "History of the City of Albany New York," she came upon a quotation from a letter written by Father Jogues while sheltered in Albany and speaking of "... a wooden cross which I had made to keep me in mind of my Savior’s suffering."
Erica Brooks is a member of English, American, State. and local artistic and literary societies. Her activities extend from her art and guidance work to therapeutic work with the blind and crippled children and humane work for animals. As a personal symbol, she uses a pyramid within the circle of friendship. Its two lower points are poetry and art. Its pinnacle is her guidance work. Of the three, she is recognized most as an artist; she loves poetry the most; but she considers guidance the apex of her life work
Times Union, Jan 5th, 1960
BROOKS‐Erica May, Poet and artist. On November 20, 1977. A memorial service under the care of the Albany Meeting of Religious Society of Friends will be held December 4, at PM at Channing Hall, Unitarian Church of Albany, 405 Washington Ave., Albany. N.Y. Contributions In her memory may be made to the American Friends Service Committee, 160 North IS St., Philadelphia, Pa.. 19102.
Erica May Brooks was the daughter of Howard and Marie Louise Brooks. Erica came to America on Sept 21, 1921 at age 27, from Weybridge England.
Erica May Brooks began her research as a young woman in her native England, where she was already both artist and teacher, and continued it in this country when she came here in 1921. Now, she has in her studio apartment at 180 Washington Ave. about 90 volumes of data she has been collecting. Feeling that the human hand might be the key to understanding creative power, she set out to learn all she could about its structure and its work. Added to her goal of establishing an exact science of what she calls "chiro-graphology" was a goal of a "museum of hands" casts and hand-graphs of the hands of the great, which she believes would be important to future generations in their study of the development of man.
She was, at the same time, continuing her artistic work and her teaching. She studied and taught art in England's private schools, was for 12 years art director at the Friends' Seminary in New York, taught poetry and oral English for three years at the Walt Whitman School in New York, and art at St. Agnes School in Loudonville for nearly eight years.
In 1934, she painted "In the Beginning," a series of 17 paintings of the Creation, shown many times since its debut at the Jean Cause Gallery in New York
The pictures of the creation as molded by majestic hands, along with the titles that, read consecutively, are a poem of Creation, were inspired after having heard Anna Hempstead Branch read her poem, "In the Beginning".
In these, she combined her study of hand structure with art. The American Encyclopedia of Biography says they are " . . .even richer in quality through the personal development made possible by her scientific research".
Miss Brooks believes the shape of a person's hands and the difference, between each, are a definite index to his mental make-up. She says that, as no two people have hands alike, it is almost as true that the hands of a single person are dissimilar. She has concluded that the left hand shows inherited traits (in a right-handed person) and the right, reaction to circumstances. She divides hand structures into elements roughly corresponding to earth and wind. If your fingers are short and stubby, she would explain you are earth-attuned and born to action, sight, touch, and taste. If your fingers are long and slender, she would say you have wind-attuned hands and belong with the thinkers and dreamers, that you should at-tune your life to thought and sound. From the undeveloped hands of a child, through the general structure and type, she can furnish parents with some idea of what mother nature had in mind for the child's future, she says. She is now working on articles on gerontology and juvenile guidance commissioned by an American magazine.
In sculpture, she executed on commission the bas-relief of Fr, Isaac Jogues that was un-veiled in Ticonderoga during last year's Hudson-Champlain celebration. In this work too, she has a story of inspiration. She had begun the likeness of the Catholic explorer who discovered Lake George and was later martyred at Auriesville, showing a prayer book and a rosary clasped in his hand. Suddenly, she says, "it came to me like a flash that this could not be true, and I substituted a wooden cross. Shortly thereafter, scanning Weise's "History of the City of Albany New York," she came upon a quotation from a letter written by Father Jogues while sheltered in Albany and speaking of "... a wooden cross which I had made to keep me in mind of my Savior’s suffering."
Erica Brooks is a member of English, American, State. and local artistic and literary societies. Her activities extend from her art and guidance work to therapeutic work with the blind and crippled children and humane work for animals. As a personal symbol, she uses a pyramid within the circle of friendship. Its two lower points are poetry and art. Its pinnacle is her guidance work. Of the three, she is recognized most as an artist; she loves poetry the most; but she considers guidance the apex of her life work
Times Union, Jan 5th, 1960
Erica May Brooks was the daughter of Howard and Marie Louise Brooks. Erica came to America on Sept 21, 1921 at age 27, from Weybridge England.
Erica May Brooks began her research as a young woman in her native England, where she was already both artist and teacher, and continued it in this country when she came here in 1921. Now, she has in her studio apartment at 180 Washington Ave. about 90 volumes of data she has been collecting. Feeling that the human hand might be the key to understanding creative power, she set out to learn all she could about its structure and its work. Added to her goal of establishing an exact science of what she calls "chiro-graphology" was a goal of a "museum of hands" casts and hand-graphs of the hands of the great, which she believes would be important to future generations in their study of the development of man.
She was, at the same time, continuing her artistic work and her teaching. She studied and taught art in England's private schools, was for 12 years art director at the Friends' Seminary in New York, taught poetry and oral English for three years at the Walt Whitman School in New York, and art at St. Agnes School in Loudonville for nearly eight years.
In 1934, she painted "In the Beginning," a series of 17 paintings of the Creation, shown many times since its debut at the Jean Cause Gallery in New York
The pictures of the creation as molded by majestic hands, along with the titles that, read consecutively, are a poem of Creation, were inspired after having heard Anna Hempstead Branch read her poem, "In the Beginning".
In these, she combined her study of hand structure with art. The American Encyclopedia of Biography says they are " . . .even richer in quality through the personal development made possible by her scientific research".
Miss Brooks believes the shape of a person's hands and the difference, between each, are a definite index to his mental make-up. She says that, as no two people have hands alike, it is almost as true that the hands of a single person are dissimilar. She has concluded that the left hand shows inherited traits (in a right-handed person) and the right, reaction to circumstances. She divides hand structures into elements roughly corresponding to earth and wind. If your fingers are short and stubby, she would explain you are earth-attuned and born to action, sight, touch, and taste. If your fingers are long and slender, she would say you have wind-attuned hands and belong with the thinkers and dreamers, that you should at-tune your life to thought and sound. From the undeveloped hands of a child, through the general structure and type, she can furnish parents with some idea of what mother nature had in mind for the child's future, she says. She is now working on articles on gerontology and juvenile guidance commissioned by an American magazine.
In sculpture, she executed on commission the bas-relief of Fr, Isaac Jogues that was un-veiled in Ticonderoga during last year's Hudson-Champlain celebration. In this work too, she has a story of inspiration. She had begun the likeness of the Catholic explorer who discovered Lake George and was later martyred at Auriesville, showing a prayer book and a rosary clasped in his hand. Suddenly, she says, "it came to me like a flash that this could not be true, and I substituted a wooden cross. Shortly thereafter, scanning Weise's "History of the City of Albany New York," she came upon a quotation from a letter written by Father Jogues while sheltered in Albany and speaking of "... a wooden cross which I had made to keep me in mind of my Savior’s suffering."
Erica Brooks is a member of English, American, State. and local artistic and literary societies. Her activities extend from her art and guidance work to therapeutic work with the blind and crippled children and humane work for animals. As a personal symbol, she uses a pyramid within the circle of friendship. Its two lower points are poetry and art. Its pinnacle is her guidance work. Of the three, she is recognized most as an artist; she loves poetry the most; but she considers guidance the apex of her life work
Times Union, Jan 5th, 1960
Gravesite Details
Erica's grave has a small flat bronze plaque which may be covered by grass clippings and leaves making it difficult to find.
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