Adam Paul Heller Studio

Hand carved slate memorial for Jacky Welsh.

Writer • Fife player • Outdoor enthusiast • Beautiful soul, well loved. A visit too brief.

Mountain Burying Ground, Suffield • Connecticut

Hand carved granite memorial for Joanie & Michael Donovan.

The final design was a collaboration with Joanie’s husband Michael who is also an artist. Among other contributions, Michael designed the Celtic Cross.

We started the design process in the fall of 2018 and the final stone was installed in the spring of 2020. This is not an uncommon time frame for the Studio. Grief takes many forms and often much time. At their best, all of the stones carved here become a part of that process [of grieving & healing & memorializing]. Creating objects by hand, although slow by modern standards, is in fact, I find, in keeping with a more natural, organic and comprehensive human experience [of what we call time].

Custom designed letters • 2” (5cm) letter height • Hand carved granite • 29” h x 22” w x 8” thickness • (73.5 cm x 56 cm x 20 cm).

The stone is installed at Maryrest Cemetery • Mahwah, New Jersey

Hand carved slate memorial stone and accompanying slate bench for Paige Zeiler. Special thanks to the Zeiler family who engage so deeply in the process.

“And then my heart with pleasure fills. And dances with the daffodils.” William Wordsworth

Natural cleft surfaces. Custom hand drawn roman and italic letters. Groton • Massachusetts

Hand carved slate memorial for Erin McGuigan. Hidden within the peony flowers are two lady bugs, one for each of Erin’s young daughters.

Saint Ignatius Cemetery, Litchfield • Connecticut

A series of slate wall pieces carved for artist Bunny Rogers.

© Bunny Rogers - Société, Berlin • Art Basel, Switzerland 2015

Hand carved slate memorial, custom hand drawn lettering and bluebird carved in raised relief.

Chicopeth, Missouri

by Artist Jenny Holzer.

Selected poems, hand carved on local boulders collected from various locations on the Island and repositioned on site. Carving by Adam Paul Heller Studio. Permanent Installation; Ibiza, Spain • 2016

Hand carved slate memorial stone for John Holmes Makin, scholar and economist. The memorial stone is accompanied by a slate bench built into the existing historical cemetery stone wall. The cemetery is an old family plot surrounded by a stone wall in what was once the family’s farm fields. The property is still managed by family.

The front of the stone features a cardinal and a moose is carved on the stone back.

Family cemetery, Tourtellot • Connecticut

by artist Jenny Holzer

Hand Carved Indiana Limestone; Adam Paul Heller Studio • 2015

Slate memorials, natural cleft stone front and back, hand drawn and carved letters, file textured sides and bevel, 30” x 18” x 2”

Portsmouth • Rhode Island

Slate gravestone for Gilbert & June Bradham. Poem by Gilbert Bradham.

Hand brushed & hand carved lettering. Slate top, 73" x 37" x 3" Limestone base by S.A. Warren & Daughters, 77" x 41" x 9"

Saint James Santee Parish | The Old Brick Church at Wambaw, McClellanville • South Carolina

For Chloe the English Bulldog.
A charming, funny & sweet character. Chloe's custom memorial is hand carved in black Virginia slate. Her name is gilded with Palladium. The front of the slate is honed smooth and the back retains the natural cleft surface that is unique to slate and achieved when it is split from a larger block. All lettering and calligraphy is hand drawn for this beautiful and unique pet tombstone.

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Slate
Hand drawn & hand carved letters
Poem by Darryn Goldsmith
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Palladium leaf (Chloe Goldsmith)
30” x 18” x 2”
(76 x 45.5 x 5 cm)
Boston, Massachusetts
2019

Standing slate memorial with natural cleft surface front and back. Hand carved lettering and sculpture. The bead border adds a classical and unique detail.

Hand drawn Roman Lettering with a Robin on an oak branch, more butterflies and zinnia flowers on the stone back.

Installed in Massachusetts

by artist Jenny Holzer. Commissioned by the Whitney Museum of American Art • New York, 2012.

Indiana Limestone, hand carved lettering. Edition of 12

photographs by Brian Wilcox

These photos @ The Granary, Sharon • Connecticut

A sail for each son, famiglia (family).

Mount Calvary Cemetery, Steubenville • Ohio

John Bryan was an artist and photographer based in Hartford Connecticut. He sometimes built black boxes for his photographs which had metal rebar inserted through the box. The rebar stood midway between the viewing hole of the box (the viewer) and the photograph, partially blocking the image. The viewer was forced to move this way and that to take in the image, never quite granted a full view all at once.

I love the concept of hidden and revealed, a dynamic all humans must negotiate. What do we reveal? What of ourselves do we actually see or let be seen?

With gratitude to Peter Van Beckum & Lisa Johnson, who fully embraced the design process for John’s stone, bringing a joy and an openness that has yielded a unique artwork, and a beautiful memorial for their dear friend.

John’s name is hand carved in slate & gilded with Palladium Leaf, a call back to Silver Plate photography. The light reflecting off the palladium offers a little extra bling, to bring you in, and make you want to keep looking and exploring.

The posts are granite.

There is local river stone at the base of the memorial to blend materials of the monument and ease the transition to the cemetery grass.

Slate, palladium, granite, river stone | Hand drawn (brushed) letters.

Oak Hill Cemetery, Southington • Connecticut

In the 1970’s the Samuels spent an extended period of time in Africa and specifically Sierra Leone, where Mr. Samuels was the United States Ambassador. They took a deep interested in African art and culture, collecting a wide variety of pieces that are now part of the Smithsonian Collection. The Samuel’s experience in and fondness for Africa was the inspiration for the sculpture seen on the front of Susan’s memorial stone.

Historic Congressional Cemetery • Washington, D.C.

Slate memorial stone • hand drawn (with brush) lettering, hand carved, JULIA gilded with 23.75k gold leaf.

Installed flush to the ground | Seattle, Washington