By Anan Zaki, Nor-West News, 2 October

Riccarton addiction advocate Damian Holt recently received a community award from the city council for his public artwork. The 57-year-old spoke to reporter Anan Zaki about his love of art and how it helped turn his life around.

Art has long been a cause of fascination for Damian Holt.
When he was a young boy, his only interests were painting and English Football, more specifically Leeds United.
He let those interests slip away in his ttenage years as he started substance abuse at age 17. He let drugs take over his body.
First it was heroin, then marijuana and alcohol. He used drugs until he was 38.
“My addiction was directly linked to depression.
“Instead of going to the doctor I was my own doctor. But I was actually making my depression wors by what I was putting into my body,” Mr Holt said.
He believes his depressions is just part of his genetic make-up. “I think I was just born with it. I had it as a child.
“I still endure depression, but I just handle it a much different way instead of drugs,” Mr Holt said.
Regaining the love for art was one of the different ways that helped Mr Holt recover from his addictions. But first he had to be honest with himself and the world.
“I was under-achieving and I wasn’t happy with that so one day I woke up and decided to be honest and do something to change my lifestyle.
“So I went to Queen Mary Hospital and Hanmer and went through the treatment programme.”
Mr Holt is in his 19th year of being sober.
Art was a therapeutic way to recover due to the time it takes to paint, he said.
“When someone gives up a lifetime of addiction there is a massive hole that’s there.
“If you think about it, if you’re an alcoholic, it takes half an hour to buy your drinks. You drink for four to five hours and you’re hung over for three or four more hours.”
Painting a mural often took about 40 hours across multiple days and that helped fill the voice left by drugs, Mr Holt said.
“Three or four sessions of alcohol or drug abuse equals one mural.
“The drug abuse cost a lot of money with nothing to show it, and the murals cost far less and is there for perpetuity,” Mr Holt said.
He is now on “default mode” on staying clean.
“It’s a habit to stay away from drugs, and I don’t think about my addiction,” Mr Holt said.
He now helps others recover from addictions at the non-profit group Mental Health Advocacy and Peer Support.
“I thought it was time to hand something back as I’ve obviously got personal experience in addiction and recovery.”
Art is one thing he recommends to people going through addictions, but he says there are other ways.
“It works for me, b ut what I generally do with my clientele is take them back to before they were on drugs and find out what their interests were between the ages of 10 and 15.
“for me between the ages 10 and 15, I loved sketching. Art and English Football were muy passions and I often sketched English football players,” Mr Holt said.
He often drew sketches of his favourite player, Leeds United goal keeper David Harvey, as he had the same initials as Mr Holt.
Hobbies that people had when they were younger can help fill the voice left by drugs, he said.

Mr Holt made his art hobby public when he started the Brockworth Art Gallery in 2012. The gallery is along the train tracks behind Brockworth Place, Riccarton.
Mr Holt never had an interest in street art until then. International street artist Banksy inspired him to start the street art.
“I watched Banksy’s film, Exit Through the Giftshop and I became really interested in street art.
“But I didn’t want to cross the police lines and get into trouble for illicit art,” Mr Holt said.
He met Kenyan artist Jess De Boer who was living in the city at the time.
“Jess and I got permission to pain the wall of Margaret Stoddart [Retirement Village] but she had to go back to Kenya immediately after we got permission.
“She gave me all the paint that she had gathered, and because I lived in [Riccarton], I started painting in 2012 with five or six paintings,” Mr Holt said.
When more vines on the walls along the railway walkway were removed, he had more canvas to paint on.
Mr Holt said his street art has a point of difference.
“I paint with paintbrushes, not with spray.
“My second point of difference is I wanted to set up street art in the layout of an art gallery so that for people that walk through there it’s like an art gallery,” he said.
Mr Holt felt a lot of pride in looking at his work, but says they are not there to show off his talents.
“It’s simply there to colour up the morning, evenings or days of whoever that’s walking there.
“It’s just there to distract people from the mundane walk of life,” he said.
Mr Holt doesn’t have any plans for any furture public murals and lifes the way it is. His last painting was in March.
“I quite like have my own little spot and I like that it’s tucked away and you kind of have to look for it,” he said.
But art will always remain a hobby for him at home.
Mr Holt had also had some advice for people going through substance abuse.
“Recovery can be achieved, two things that are key to a recovery is acceptance that you’ve got a probem, and personal honesty around everything that you do in life.
“Hang in there, it does get better. Sometimes people find it really hard to break a habit, but onece you break the habit it gets better,” Mr Holt said.