Eric Gillespie of Londonderry, N.H., was an empathetic soul, caring, sensitive and introspective. A lover of music, video games and comic books, especially Batman, Eric “gravitated toward the underdogs” and felt other people’s pain acutely, according to his family. Yet he struggled with his own pain, both physical and emotional, after returning from a 14-month Army deployment to Iraq in 2007 with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Eric died in March 2022 at age 38 of a fentanyl overdose after an eight-year battle with opioid addiction. After his death, his mother, Joanne Gillespie, heard about the Into Light Project. The nonprofit was founded in 2019 by North Carolina sketch artist Theresa Clower, who had lost her own son, Devin Bearden, to an accidental overdose in 2018. She coped with her grief by creating graphite pencil sketches of her son — and later, of others lost to addiction. Into Light now aims to create art exhibitions in every state, honoring Americans who’ve died of substance-use disorder. Each show, the 18th of which will open in Vermont later this year, features hand-drawn graphite pencil portraits and profiles of the deceased, drawn by a team of commissioned artists and penned by professional writers.
When Gillespie read some of the stories on the nonprofit’s website, she wept and decided immediately that she wanted Eric included in last fall’s exhibition in New Hampshire, where he grew up.
“We have all borne that stigma of a loved one who died of a drug overdose,” said Gillespie, a former South Burlington resident who now lives in Newark, Del. “So when someone asks you what were they really like, that’s therapeutic in so many ways.”
Vermonters now have an opportunity to honor their own loved ones who succumbed to addiction. Beginning on July 11, the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center will host “Drug Addiction: Real People, Real Stories,” an exhibition that runs through November 1.
To create the exhibition, Into Light Project is inviting Vermonters to complete an online questionnaire and upload a photo of someone who died as a result of substance-use disorder. There’s no cost to the family, and at the exhibition’s conclusion, each will receive the framed original portrait and written profile. The project will also create reproductions of all the drawings on brushed metal for future displays, with the life narratives permanently posted on the nonprofit’s website.
To help the writers compose the profiles, families go to the nonprofit’s website and answer a series of questions, among them: “How would you describe your loved one?” “What skills, talents or abilities did they have?” “How long did they live with the disease of addiction?” And “What goals or plans did they have for their future?”
The aim of the project is to humanize addiction, raise awareness of the stigmas associated with it and educate the public that substance-use disorder is a disease, not a moral failure. The Brattleboro show will have space to feature 25 Vermonters, on a first-come, first-served basis.
“Rather than have our loved ones forever defined by the disease of addiction and the cause of their death,” Clower, the group’s founder and CEO, wrote on the nonprofit’s website, “we wish to portray them in their entirety, both the light and the dark.” ➆
“Drug Addiction: Real People, Real Stories” will be on display from July 11 to November 1 at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center. Vermonters wishing to include their loved one in the exhibition can visit intolightproject.org.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Nonprofit Seeks Stories of Vermonters Lost to Addiction for Brattleboro Art Show”
This article appears in January 7 • 2026.
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