A Revolutionary Way
Of Keeping our Memories Alive

We create portraits of your beloved from their cremated ashes

ICONS IN ASH
MEMORIAL PORTRAITS

Ash Transfer

Cremation
Keepsakes

Trying to find an answer for what to do with cremated ashes? We offer memorial portraits that can change the way we relate to death and grief in our everyday lives.

New Project (1)

Mosaic
Portraits

Capturing the essence of our beloved, the respect, honor, and love that our portraits embody can be a comforting and beautiful presence in a future without them.

PET MEMORIAL

Pet Memorial
Portraits

Knowing that love and loss are not exclusive to only human relationships. Commemorate the legacy of love with a vibrant portrait of your beloved companion.

WELCOME TO OUR STUDIO

Curious how our workspace looks? Here’s an intimate glimpse inside our studio, featuring ICONS IN ASH founder, Heide Hatry, to give you a better idea of how we work.

MEMORIAL PORTRAITS ARE FOREVER

Our cremation portraits look as realistic as a photograph of your loved one, even more so, as it has depth and a texture that photographs cannot achieve, and at the same time, it is your loved one – it is a cremation ash keepsake.  The effect of that reality is indescribable and will always be true. You are seeing your loved one in her or his image, and this knowledge never diminishes, effortlessly enriching your relationship to the image and to memory.

Everyone who owns an Icons in Ash memorial portrait has described a profound effect of presence that is “calming,” “soothing,” or “consoling.” Many, especially when they had been suffering powerful grief, have described it as life-changing, as a way of coming to terms with the fact of death.

Graveyards and mausoleums stay where they are, while we do not. Especially in a time of global movement, it seems more appropriate to be able to take our beloved with us when we have to move.y

Meet Our Founder

Heide Hatry is a contemporary fine artist represented by Ubu Gallery in New York City. Her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries around the world.

Hatry’s father’s death at a young age left her with a persistent sense of unresolved grief and the sense of a daunting void within. Many years later, after a dear friend had committed suicide, she sought solace through her art practice as a way coping with this now intensified and fiercely resurfacing grief.

The ways of art are ineffable. Following a sudden inspiration, Hatry “understood” that she had to make portraits of her father and her friend using their cremated remains if she wanted to come to terms with their deaths. Over a long and emotionally complicated period, she eventually perfected a labor-intensive mosaic technique in which she placed the individual ash particles onto a surface of beeswax until, using a series of individual applications, a rich and textured likeness had emerged. But more important than the technical breakthroughs, her experience revealed the possibility of a deep solace and a life-altering communion with her beloved through these profoundly present and emotionally-charged portraits that she felt compelled to share with others who were suffering from loss of their own.

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