Death of ___ in Americana
5' x 4' | 2023 | Multi-media collage: Graphite, oil pastel, modeling paste, acrylic,
newspaper, and McDonald’s to-go bags
This self-portrait is a meditation on loss. In it, I’ve recreated a striking childhood memory: one summer day in my hometown in Colorado, I saw a grayish-blue man draped out of the driver’s seat window from his car in a McDonald’s parking lot. He had apparently passed away, presumably from an overdose. Someone had tossed an oily rag to cover his face. My mom and I drove past in a funeral procession of shoppers with our weekly grocery haul. The drive-thru of the restaurant was still open and busy.
Addiction is so commonplace in San Francisco that most locals accept it as a part of everyday life. Almost daily, I step over or around half-conscious people struggling with addiction. I avoid looking at them to avoid seeing the image of my brother, who survived two overdoses in 2020. Addiction tears through the fabric of our society, devastating communities and families like my own, and yet I walk on by.
