Our Stories
Share the power of long-term recovery. If you are in recovery, a family member, friend or ally of someone in recovery, we want to hear your recovery story!
Learn more...
Faces & Voices of Recovery's book page
has information on many of the growing number of recovery-related publications. It’s a work in progress, so please let us know of other books that you think we should include. Check it out!
|
Recovery in the News
Mich. Artist Struggled with Addiction, Family Says
Elizabeth Willis
Battle Creek Enquirer
October 3, 2009
BATTLE CREEK, Mich. - The troubled life of a western Michigan artist whose suspended sculpture was recently unveiled at the Battle Creek Health System's cancer center should be openly discussed while his work is celebrated publicly, said his sister, who believes doing so will offer healing to people who face similar challenges.
Theresa Burke said her brother, John Galloup, died of multiple afflictions that debilitated his life and carried heavy social stigmas: drug and alcohol addiction, complicated by bipolar disorder.
"They can't (snap out of addiction) any more than a cancer patient can just snap out of (cancer)," Burke said of her brother's lifelong struggle. "And some don't make it."
Galloup died Dec. 14, 2007. He was 47.
As a child, Galloup was painfully shy and hid behind Coke-bottle glasses, Burke said. He graduated from Pennfield High School and later attended the Kendall College of Art and Design.
But he crumpled under the pressure of academic life. During his freshman year, Galloup was found outside his apartment overdosed on drugs and was thought to be clinically dead, Burke said.
He later suffered a mental breakdown and was committed to a hospital for treatment and diagnosis. Doctors thought he had developed schizophrenia, but further tests revealed he had bipolar disorder, a mental condition in which an individual is unable to control severe swings between highly manic and depressive moods.
Galloup's condition was treated with medicine and therapy. He later married and had two daughters. But he also self-medicated with drugs and alcohol, Burke said. As his condition worsened, so did his addiction.
"You never knew when he was clean and sober," Burke said, adding that her brother also abused legal painkillers and overdosed twice in the month before he died.
"On the outside, you could see that he was gaining success as an artist," she said. "His pieces were selling through Community Inclusive Recreation."
Galloup gave one of his grandest pieces -- a bold-colored, abstract painting of spheres and swirls in orbit -- to Burke as a present. It brought tears to her eyes.
"I see John in there," she said.
Galloup was one of the most passionate and brilliant artists that his mentor, Andrew Freemire, said he has ever worked with at Community Inclusive Recreation. Galloup was hired as an art instructor, but he called Freemire his master.
Often too shy to speak, he gave all the credit for their collaborative work to Freemire.
"He didn't really believe in himself," Burke said.
Galloup struggled to commit to a teaching regime, often apologizing for missing work or showing up visibly uncomfortable, Freemire said, adding that his friend's talent and resilience were reasons to continually defend him.
People sometimes complained that Galloup's art was dark and twisted, Freemire said. A door that Galloup painted shortly before his death was black with blood-red swaths of color.
Other pieces honored things he loved: nature, animals and family. A chair he painted for a Woman's Co-op fundraiser depicted a landscape in which his deceased mother's spirit floated in dappled golden flecks.
But it wasn't until he collaborated with Freemire on the cancer center's mobile that he became a part of a project from the very beginning. It was Galloup's idea to include the silhouettes of a duck and a dolphin that now hang below the figure representing spirit and light, Freemire said.
Freemire completed the mobile after Galloup's death, but acknowledged: "I would all the time feel his presence. I know everyone appreciated his artwork, but I don't think that everyone appreciated the depth of his brilliance."
"Grace," the mobile sculpture now hanging in The Cancer Care Center's atrium, was created to show that acceptance plus courage equals grace.
It is a theme that comforts both cancer patients and addicts, Burke said, adding that she believes there are many parallels between the two afflictions.
"They can't stop it, but they are responsible to understand the disease and commit to recovery," she said. "Sometimes even then, they just can't do it."
Galloup couldn't stop his mental illness, struggled to accept himself and never felt like he fit in, Burke said.
"I believe it was too much for him," she said, adding that one day she hopes mental illness might enjoy the same attention that cancer has garnered, including funding and research.
"I'd like to see addictions enjoy the same level of acceptance."
Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.