Suicide is a topic that has for many years been near to me. Through my life, I have known several people who have killed themselves. My community and the nation at large is facing an astounding rate of suicide. The topic even hit home when my stepbrother killed himself. Experiencing passive suicidal thoughts for many years of my life lead me to have many deep feelings on the topic. These suicidal thoughts have receded as I age and learn to cope with life better. The thought of suicide is a concept we get exposed to and then either carry with us or let go. For me, I carried these thoughts for years and from time to time the idea still comes to my mind. Now the thoughts are of sympathy and of ways to alleviate these thoughts and feeling from our community
“Find Your Words “ is a public art campaign created by Kaiser Permanente with the goal of raising awareness about mental health and suicide. The city of Pueblo was chosen to host an installment of this campaign. The painting is sectioned into three parts all repeating the phrase “WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER”. The artists involved in the project were The Creatures Crew and Mike Fudge and then we worked as a group with The Boys and Girls Club, The Daisy Girls and other local children to create the third section of the wall. It was great to work with Kaiser Permanent on a project related to suicide and mental health awareness. Pueblo suffers a high suicide rate. It was a great honor to use my voice and my art skills to help remove the stigmas surrounding the talking about mental health and suicide. Continue reading Find Your Words
