Hands of the Funeral Family

Louisville, Kentucky

For generations, A.D. Porter and Sons has been one of the most popular funeral homes in Louisville. When its reigning patriarch, Woodford Porter, died in 2006, his son "Woody" decided that the family needed a suitable grave memorial. The unusual result features Woody's name prominently -- even though he isn't dead -- with a pair of large bronze hands rising from the top of the granite monument, as if they are reaching for the heavens, or erupting out of a fresh-dug grave.

The hands are rendered dramatically -- not comforting or vigorous, but ropy and cadaverous, reminding us of the Robert Berks "mud monster" style of figurative sculpture.