New Hampshire Mother Uses Art Therapy to Raise Heroin Addiction Awareness
August 2, 2016
Anne Marie Zanfagna’s gregarious nature is evident from the moment you start talking with her. One would be hard pressed to see the pain hidden behind her outgoing demeanor. Even as a life long friend, I do not always see the sadness Anne Marie carries with her.
When I sat down with her for an interview about her Angels of Addictions project, it quickly became evident that her sadness was what motivates her to paint the portraits of young heroin overdose victims. Anne Marie feels this work, painting portraits and talking about heroin addiction is now her life’s work, her mission.
Through her 501c3 non-profit organization, Angels Of Addictions, Anne Marie and her husband Jim work to raise awareness about heroin addiction, the stigma of heroin addiction and to help raise money for recovery services and a scholarship in their daughter Jackie’s name. Jackie died of a heroin overdose in October 2014.
Anne describes Jackie as completely opposite from her older daughter Sarah in that Sarah was a happy, outgoing child like her mother, but Jackie had some issues with learning disabilities early on in school and she exhibited signs of being more of a challenge, less apt to join groups and make friends.
“Jackie wasn’t buying into the ‘Happy, Healthy, Terrific and Positive (HHTP)’ mantra that my mother instilled in me,” Anne told me. “She had a mind of her own. She wasn’t willing to take advice or direction.”
I asked Anne if she felt this contributed to Jackie’s addiction problems, Anne told me, “Jackie was a beautiful girl. She was smart and she didn’t realize it. In high school she was arrested for pot brownies. Everything began to spiral downward after that.”
Although Anne Marie and her family sought help for Jackie on occasion, they found few resources available in New Hampshire where they live. Jackie died of a heroin overdose, alone in her boyfriend’s apartment, while he was work. That was when, Anne said, “life became hell. It was a nightmare and in some ways it still is.”
Adding to the horror of losing a child to heroin, Anne and her family initially found out that Jackie had died on Facebook. Through a series of circumstances in which no one was at home when the police came to the house to break the news, ultimately someone who knew Jackie posted “R.I.P. Jackie” on her wall. Soon the ripple effect of internet news spread. A friend of Sarah’s contacted her after reading the post on Jackie’s wall.
Fast forward, nearly sixteen months from Jackie’s death, Anne Marie is using art therapy to help her work through her grief. She started with a bold, colorful portrait of Jackie, she told me during our interview.
“I found the time I spent working on the painting of Jackie was like time spent with her. It was very cathartic for me. When I finished her portrait I brought it to the local heroin support group in Plaistow, NH that my husband Jim and I attend monthly. From there, it snowballed,” Anne said. “Parents of another young woman who had died of an overdose asked me to paint their daughter. Within a short time I had a list of requests and before I knew it I had finished finished six portraits.”
Anne Marie Zanfagna has now completed over 35 portraits and she regularly receives requests from grieving families for portraits. She has a gallery exhibit coming up in Nashua, NH in September.
She has taken her portraits to Washington, DC for the CARA Family Day. She’s done other art shows in recent months as well. Each event is met with people who are overcome with the enormity of the tragic loss.
Each portrait she paints brings a sense of joy and gratitude the families who get copies of the portraits. The originals are used in her shows and at events to raise awareness. Anne Marie hopes to display her portraits at the NH State House and other government halls to get politicians to do more for the heroin epidemic. President Obama recently signed the CARA bill into law, but the Republican controlled Congress refused to pass full funding of the bill. The White House had asked for nearly one billion dollars to fund the initiative. Congress approved a mere $181 million.
Anne says, “This is my mission now, to raise awareness of the toll of the heroin epidemic through art.” Anne says the portraits she paints show that the victims of the heroin crisis were real people, not numbers or statistics.
All of the “Angels” portraits can be viewed here and here. Donations to Angels of Addictions can be made here and here. Anne Marie’s work is an important mission. As communications consultant to Angels of Addictions, I am happy to support this worthy cause with web design and graphic design work.
