Philip House is proud to announce that James P., one of our Philip House residents, has won 4th place in the Heroin and Opioid Art Exhibit. This contest included art work submitted from all over the State. James’ entry was also chosen as part of the traveling exhibit. We are happy to say James will be donating the work to Philip House after the exhibit is over. He is quite an artist and the pain and struggle of addiction he has depicted in his artwork is clear. Below is the explanation he included with his entry.
“The piece I am submitting is called ‘The Struggle is Real’. I wanted to capture the heartache and overwhelming pain this addict in my piece is experiencing. I wanted to show how broken his addiction left him. I have an emotional attachment to this piece because while I was working on it, it made me remember my own struggle and pain I felt throughout the long years of my own addiction. His empty lifeless eyes show he can no longer go on living the life of addiction. It shows how every minute of every day is a true struggle because he must feed the monster inside of him to go on. The door symbolizes the door way to recovery. It shows the endless black hole of despair and grief his addiction led him to. In the picture he is walking away from the door to try to begin a new life, hopefully sober”