Originally Posted at Katana Pilot (https://www.katana-pilot.com/blog/into-light-honoring-lives-challenging-stigma/)
Into Light: The Faces of Drug Addiction
Today I visited the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art in Logan and experienced a deeply moving exhibit.
I left not only with a heavy heart but with renewed hope, recognizing the power of art, memory, and compassion to change how we view addiction and loss. What is Into Light?
INTO LIGHT is a national project that partners with one museum in each U.S. state to exhibit portraits and narratives of people who died from drug overdose, poisoning, or related causes. Each portrait is hand-drawn in graphite and paired with stories submitted by families or loved ones. At the end of the exhibit, the original portraits are gifted to the families. The creator, Theresa Clower, began this work after losing her son, Devin Hart Bearden, to an accidental fentanyl overdose. Her journey from grief to impact is part of the story: “I feel this is a gift from Devin … I feel him in it all the time.” Clower’s mission: to humanize addiction, break down stigma, and shift the conversation from shame to understanding.
When we see portraits and hear the stories of individual lives, we stop seeing addiction as a statistic or a moral failing—and we begin to see the person behind the struggle. This exhibit invites empathy, remembrance, and reflection. It gives voice to those who have been silenced by loss and by stigma.
It also provides a public space for healing and community. As part of the exhibit’s opening, NEHMA and USU Extension held an event called “A Light to Remember”—with luminaries, public reflection, and resource booths to promote overdose awareness and prevention.
Here are the names that I would like to digitally memorialize, digitally giving the respect to the family members of those lost to this terrible addiction.
Devin Hart Bearden, Kelly James Jones, Troy William Jobin, Zarek Jai McMeekin, Kaitlynn “Kati” Jo Smith Bentley, Amelia P. Wiltse, Robert M. Goodell, Jacob Oreskovich, Tony Maza, Kenny Mobley, Lee Stayton, Jimmy Johnson, Sharol Hammer, Chris Davis, Tracin Frisby, Amo Mc Clain, Derrick Clayborne, CT Simmons, Kim Heffner, Virgil Harris, Sharon Lemon, Justin Brown, are just a few names of the souls that we have lost to this terrible addiction.
I want to express deep gratitude to, The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art for hosting this exhibition and giving space to this important conversation. Theresa Clower and the Into Light Project for transforming personal grief into a powerful movement for social change.
The families and loved ones who shared portraits and stories—to welcome vulnerability, remembrance, and hope. The artists, writers, curators, and museum staff who bring each story to life. Because of this exhibition, people will pause, reflect, and perhaps rethink their assumptions about addiction and loss.
