FINDLAY, Ohio– Art and addiction come together in a special exhibit in Findlay that shares people’s struggles and shows the beauty in overcoming. 

Ellyn Schmiesing is the Executive Director for the Focus Recovery Wellness Community and an educator at the University of Findlay.

She’s also been in recovery over the past 11 years, after years of substance abuse and other personal issues. 

“I’ve struggled with addiction issues; I’ve struggled with a variety of mental health issues. I’ve struggled, I’ve had challenges with food,” says Schmiesing. 

This Spring, Schmiesing met retired Findlay art teacher Nancy Frakenfield, and she shared her story. Their conversation became a friendship, their friendship became a collaboration, and that in turn became an art exhibit: “Stories of Recovery Through the Eyes of an Artist.”

“It was just very difficult to hear it, and yet I absolutely empathized. She had a real moment of clarification in a pivotal moment that happened, and that’s when I thought about the broken glass and the spirals, you know, because I thought—things spiraled. In the circle is the puzzle pieces coming together, and that’s what happened with Ellyn,” says Frakenfield. 

“And that was my way of coping, my way of surviving at the time. And then I reached a point where that wasn’t working for me anymore, and I was going to end up dead or otherwise. And I didn’t want that. When I saw the mirror pieces that popped right into my head right away was just that journey of taking that shattered thing, putting it together but seeing yourself in a total different beautiful way,” says Schmiesing. 

Schmiesing’s art is one of four personal pieces created by local artists, now on display at Focus Recovery and Wellness Community in Findlay. 

Colors, shapes, and textures are used to express one’s feelings, marrying recovery, culture, and art together. 

For Schmiesing, now also a mother with four degrees to her name, the project is yet another way to aid in the healing process. 

“I use to be that person that you know, no one had any idea of anything I had been through, and that’s fine, but at the end of the day, it’s about hope. Recovery takes a community, and this creates that community,” says Schmiesing. 

For more information, check out Focus Recovery and Wellness Community by following this link.