Say Uncle

In the late 1990s, the first wave of the opioid crisis began. Fraudulently marketed as less addictive, overdose deaths were caused by certain legal prescription opioids and methadone. The second wave began in 2010, marked by rapid increases in heroin overdoses. The third wave began in 2013 with significant increases in overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids, particularly illicitly manufactured fentanyl. Per the CDC, 187 people die every day due to opioid overdose… if we multiply the 187 by 365 and then again by the approximate 20 year span of the crisis that’s 1,365,100 opioid related overdoses over the past two decades.

Say Uncle was originally done as pyrography on reclaimed wood panel and was created & sold in Houston TX in February 2015. I made the piece after my paternal uncle died of an overdose on December 22, 2014.
As the opioid epidemic continues, my uncle is never far from my thoughts.
The current version of Say Uncle was drawn in pen and ink and painted with both ink and watercolors.
Revisited in Houston, 2023
15" x 11"