Bryan Glass met Jerry Feightner at a local bar in Long Beach, Long Island while out with a friend. He was in the middle of building an art studio and was in search of artists to help his vision come to life. Unknown to Bryan, he was sitting next to his future artist and friend who he would soon lose to a struggle that was kept hidden from the world.
Jerry was a reclusive, visual artist with Cerebral palsy (CP), a group of disorders that affect a person’s ability to move and maintain balance and posture. Despite his disability, art was a way for Jerry to escape the clutches of his disability to create something beautiful. Jerry viewed all forms of creativity as coming from the same energy source, and he harnessed an artistic ability with many specific mediums.
Bryan hired Jerry to create the artwork that would be incorporated (in a three-dimensional way) into stained glasswork and helped promote his work as an artist. While seemingly normal on the outside, Jerry was struggling with a strong darkness inside of him and had been for years. What Bryan, and a lot of others didn’t know, is that Jerry was suffering with heroin addiction behind closed doors.
In early 2020, Bryan received the call. Jerry had overdosed. All that was left was his artwork, and in Bryan’s words, his legacy.
The Jerry Feightner Project was created to spread awareness on addiction and to honor Jerry’s legacy. Together with the Partnership to End Addiction, the project will release 2,613 NFTs, first dropping 39, one for each of Jerry’s years on Earth. The first 39 NFTs represent shards of stained glass created from the project Jerry was working on with Bryan before his passing.
Jerry was far from alone in his struggles, and we hope to shed more light on the staggering numbers and stories around addiction.
Proceeds from every sale will go directly to the Partnership to End Addiction. NFTs will be available for sale beginning April 25 on Ethereum. If you’d like to donate to the cause, you can do so here.
