Art therapy helps Garry through his darkest days

FIRST solo exhibition: Garry Holt discovered a flair for eye-catching collages after being introduced to art therapy

A MAN who turned to art to get through the darkest days of an incurable and debilitating illness is proudly staging his first exhibition.

Garry Holt’s Hidden in the Backseat of my Head opens at Gallery Oldham on Saturday and is a collection of collages.

Garry (38), from Royton, suffers from Kennedy’s disease — a rare form of motor neurone disease, and took up art when a routine operation in 2014 left him unable to walk.

While undergoing specialist care in Rochdale, he was introduced to art therapy and quickly became adept at collages.

“When I started doing them in hospital people started telling me how good they were and it encouraged me to carry on,” Garry told the Chronicle.

“It’s something I turn to when I’m down in the dumps; it makes me happy. The collages reflect all sorts of emotions: some are funny, some are dark, some are surreal, but I’ve got miles better since I started doing them.”

At Saturday’s opening in the Community Gallery, between 1 and 4pm, Garry will explain how art therapy helped him to overcome his depression during treatment