Merv Thompson Art
Desktop Stone Memorials
I create small intimate memorials in Polychrome limestone, made for a desktop, shelf or fireplace mantel. Each finished stone is approximately 9.5 X 11.5 X 1.5, mounted on a 2” X 3” hardwood base.
These memorials are for any animal, bird, or plant on Earth who was a friend to any human.
The process unfolds slowly, in three phases.
First, I create a Notan print— a simple black-and-white study that finds the essential light, shadow, and spirit of the subject.
Second, I develop three color versions from that Notan. The client chooses one, and that chosen print is matted and framed as a finished artwork.
Third, after a waiting period of three months, the client may choose to have the image carved into limestone. This pause is intentional: it allows time for grief, memory, and feeling to settle before committing the image to stone.
The final memorial is carved and painted by hand — a quiet, lasting tribute to a living presence that mattered.
How I Discovered Stone
My Grandfather was a stone-carver. I knew about it but it held little interest for me. I was busy buying land and building cabins. And then along came a 12,000 acre Sonoma County, Cazadero CA forest fire [1978] which took everything.
This is when the art story started getting good. Soon after I was at a Sebastapol CA flea market when I noticed some odd looking tools, I asked what they were and the seller said, "granite carving chisels" I asked "how much?" He said, "$5.00". On the way home I picked up a 'likely looking stone'; When I hit the stone with a stone hammer and a point [a stone chisel], a feeling of 'I'm home ecstasy - electricity' shot through the stone, the chisel, the hammer, my hand, arm, shoulder, heart and both legs right into the earth. I never looked back, in '82 and '83 I was studying stone sculpture In Pietrasanta, Italy under the tutelage of Emilio Burratti, a master who sang opera, painted in oils and carved stone. By 1991 I was one of two lead stone carvers on the restoration of the St. Francis Hotel on Union Square, San Francisco
Studied Stone Sculpture in Pietrasanta, Italy 1982 - 1983
After which I moved into wood sculpture, polychrome [colored] stone relief, polychrome wood, white line intaglio printmaking, wooden mask making, oil painting, water color and marine photography. [And] Architectural Stone Carving.
My Art Mediums
Memorials by Appointment Only
Memorial is a process in two distinct phases the new master print block/ a three month wait (until passions cool off)