The mosaic portrait looks exactly as the photo I gave to Heide, it’s amazing! Just absolutely perfect! And to live with my mother's embodied portrait is really different: I put the memorial portrait in a place where I can see it first thing in the morning and I say "good morning" and it makes me feel wonderful. It didn’t change my relationship to my mother, because I was always very close to her, but I feel her presence more than before and I feel thankful and it makes me happy to have her back in this beautiful portrait.

The portraits are absolutely beautiful. . . I can most definitely feel her presence. When I look at them they're so lifelike. I talk to her every day and I love being able to stare into her beautiful eyes.

Heide Hatry’s portraits in ash of my father and younger brother are so beautiful and moving. It’s difficult to express the connection one feels with their images knowing that part of their essence is utilized in creating them. If you haven’t experienced it yourself, there is something quite poetic and enriching. The moments I spend with their images are like a prayer in the most open, honest, and connected sense of that act.

I was both impressed and relieved to discover that just a small portion of cremated remains was needed to make a portait, which meant that I could keep my sister close and still honor her wish to be scattered. The personal memorial piece that Heide created of my sister, Tammy Hoefer, is far beyond a photograph or even an oil portrait. It’s not just an image; it’s not even just art. And it has given comfort to our family in ways we could never have imagined. The world of grief has received an angel in the talented hands and generous heart of Heide Hatry.

What Heide was doing might perhaps be considered in the sense of art practice as spiritual practice. As someone raised in the Catholic faith, the idea of relics, holy paintings, prayerfulness, and reverence hold for me a strange beauty and trembling. Life is full of mystery.

Every morning when I came to the gallery, I was transported into a highly reflective and becalmed state in the very apparent presence of my parents. When I say that, I mean that I felt their distinct physical being around me, as I did as well for the other subjects of Heide's captivating portraits made with their cremains.

When I considered getting a portrait, I realized that Roberto would approve. In an era where death is still such a taboo, even with the global pandemic, it is important to be reminded of our impermanence. And this way I have a reliquary object, a visual post-modern memento of Roberto, that carries his aura. He remains with me.