By Frank Lee • fclee@stcloudtimes.com • February 3, 2009
Work of local artist who struggled with addiction is featured at Recovery Plus
John Heckman knows — when it comes to loneliness and despair, courage and hope — sometimes words are just not enough to express a person's struggle with addiction.
The 57-year-old from Sauk Rapids celebrated 34 years of sobriety and is the featured artist at St. Cloud Hospital's Recovery Plus, a rehabilitation facility on Anderson Avenue in St. Cloud.
"I think it's very important to replace the chemical highs with natural highs, so I went back to doing things that I enjoyed before I ever started using, when I was young," Heckman said.
Heckman was a teen when he began drinking, following in the footsteps of his mother, who was an alcoholic, and that led him to smoking marijuana and mainlining cocaine in the 1970s.
His paintings and murals, along with artwork by his wife, are on exhibit in a hallway at the treatment center, which got its start in 1971 and serves more than 200 clients in its programs.
"We have a creative arts program as part of our treatment services, so beginning in March, we plan to feature other artists who are in recovery," said Jim Forsting, director of Behavioral Health Services for St. Cloud Hospital.
Heckman has about a dozen works of his art temporarily displayed at Recovery Plus, but he is painting three permanent murals at the facility that have a nautical theme.
"Dealing with addiction is like being a ship on the high seas without a mast, without a rudder, without sails, without a compass," Forsting said.
Recovery Plus completed the addition to its facility in October, with space devoted to the display of art and poetry created by those who have been served by Recovery Plus.
"I think it's a way of inspiring others, especially those that we are currently serving at Recovery Plus," said Loree Le Roux, a family psychotherapist at Recovery Plus.
Poems written by those served by Recovery Plus will also be featured at the facility, as well as a permanent tribute to Mary Hughes for her introduction of poetry therapy to Recovery Plus.
"Creating art is relaxing for most ... a way of dealing with the stress that all of us experience from one time to another," Le Roux said.
Heckman works as a chemical health consultant for Recovery Plus in the Foley and Kimball school systems and still attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
"How a lot of people get into addiction is through medicating their own emotions, but it's a genetic disease, too, so I kind of followed in that same path," Heckman said of his alcoholism.
"It consumed my whole life. I got married very young and that marriage was somewhat destroyed by my chemical use," said Heckman, who says he drank to become more outgoing.
Le Roux said Heckman's talent is his artistic ability to capture the human form, and his sensitive and honest portrayal of characters found in the American Indian and Amish cultures.
"Most of the time when people get into art as an expression of recovery the message is not one of the darkness within but more of the hope that they find in recovery," Forsting said.
