EUGENE, Ore. — It’s seen by the eyes and appreciated for its beauty, but for Eugene artist Rodger Deevers, creating visual art is a matter of life and death.

It’s one so powerful it turns him toward the light at the end of the dark tunnel he says he travels daily while illuminating the lives of those around him.

“All my art and all my creativity stem from a very dark place. And that is my own mental illness that I’ve been dealing with for, well now 45 years,” Deevers said.

Scanning his family tree, Deevers says from bipolar disorder to schizophrenia, his family has had a history of mental illness, and at 13, he too began to feel different.

In time, he’d be diagnosed with four different mental illnesses, but he decided to fight one 24-hour block at a time against suicidal thoughts with a colorful weapon — paint.

“It’s there when I wake up and it’s there when I go to bed, and that’s why art has been such a pivotal thing for me. I have to treat myself,” said Deevers. “When I’m not feeling good, when I’m not feeling particularly satisfied in any given situation, there’s a good chance that those thoughts of suicide will come out. And I will have to deal with that. And so, one of the things I do to prevent suicide is to do art.”

Deever’s wife says she’s witnessed his art hold him together.

“There’s been the ups and downs, and when we were first married, we first got married, I had no idea any of this was going on,” said Lisa Deevers. “It’s been a struggle at times; art is a huge outlet for him, and hopefully other people could learn to do that, navigate that way to get out of it.”

He doesn’t make a living off of his artwork; instead, he’s a financial advisor.

But his art isn’t free; it’s typically found at auction benefitting non-profits across Lane County.

“When I’m done with it, I honestly am not attached to it at all. If it raises money for a non-profit, that’s awesome. I don’t care what happens to that. Because the value that I got out of it was the creation of it. I was able to take time from my darkness and lessen that for me. I feel better.”

For Sherry Simpson who lost her sister Patricia to cancer on June 22, Deevers’ creative therapy is helping to sew together the pieces of a torn heart with the one thing she needs most right now.

“Oh my gosh; so much love. We found out, and two months later, she was gone. Him doing this for me makes me want to do more for other people,” she said.

Deevers awed an audience for Greenhill Humane Society’s Evening for Animals in October — the shelter’s biggest fundraiser of the year — with the completed piece auctioned off to Tom Overley.

Overley says it’s like a gift that keeps on giving brightening every eye that sees it hanging on his wall.

“This was the most unique thing I’d ever seen there where Roger had set up a canvas in the corner, totally blank. Just him and his paint around him and his headphones. And once the event started, he just sort of turned his back to the audience and became fixated on this painting. And it was just fascinating,” Overley said.

KVAL -{ }Darkness to light: Eugene artist transforms lives and treats his mental illness with art

“He really is touching lives, and he’s connecting people, and he’s reminding people that the love of what he does resonates so far and so wide,” said Kelly Fleischman, community engagement manager, Greenhill Humane Society.

He now plans an initiative to train guides — people who deal with mental illness themselves who have found ways to regulate and cope who want to help others do the same.

“We’re only here for a little bit,” said Deevers. “If we get a chance to make an impact on other people’s lives, that’s why we’re here.”