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Camden New Journal - BY SUNITA RAPPAI
Published: 12 July 2007

Leon Hendry with the sculpture dedicated to his father that will be taken to Highgate Cemetery

Sculptor creates spectacular cemetery tribute to father

HIGHGATE cemetery has always inspired heartfelt tributes to its dead – but even among its ornate memorials, one particular gravestone will stand out this week.
A striking three-foot high concrete sculpture of a man’s face shrouded by the Virgin Mary which is being transported to the cemetery this week, is a 12-month labour of love created by 24-year-old Leon Hendry in memory of his father.
Through rain, sleet and snow, Mr Hendry, who completed a degree in fine art at Middlesex University two years ago, has toiled on the project, his first sculpture, in the front yard of his home in Highgate West Hill.
His father, Michael, died last June after a long battle with emphysema and is buried in the eastern part of the cemetery, a stone’s throw from Karl Marx.
Mr Hendry said: “I came up with the idea when he was dying but I only started doing it about a month after he died. It has been like a sort of meditation process for me – I suppose I have been using art as therapy.”
Sometimes working up to 15 hours a day on the project, Mr Hendry said it had occasionally been difficult to separate his emotions from the creative process. The man’s face in the sculpture is based on his father.
He said: “When you are making something like that you are looking at it structurally but you are also considering your dad’s death at the same time. It became a mission to do it justice. I am relieved that it is almost over now. I just hope that we can get it to the cemetery in one piece.”
John Oakes, a Highgate Cemetery trustee, said it had welcomed Mr Hendry’s proposal to create a personal memorial for his father.
He added: “It’s very rare for a member of the family to actually create a memorial and it is a very touching gesture. The cemetery does have its own monumental masons who are very creative but the input of a relative can not be matched.”

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