BILLINGS — The first of three murals aimed at suicide prevention was unveiled Thursday inside the YWCA in Billings.
Local artist Elyssa Leininger spent several weeks on the project, equating to what she said was over 100 hours of work, spanning multiple walls.
"In all of my public art, I implement color psychology and use warm, uplifting, bright colors. Only the feel-good colors." Leininger said on Thursday. "So I knew that I wanted to incorporate that."
The Billings Jaycees and the Suicide Prevention Coalition of Yellowstone Valley funded the mural to brighten the shelter space for women and children. It's already working.
"My passion is bringing art and beauty and light to maybe dark places that don't see a lot of love or beauty. When I decided to do this project, I really wanted to incorporate the mama and baby bison together because for one, the bison's a symbol of resilience, but also the mom and the baby, a nurturing, uplifting scene for the women and their children," Leininger said.
The Suicide Prevention Coalition of Yellowstone Valley is eager to spread a message it said is crucial through the murals.
"There's people out in the world struggling, and we want to support everybody in the community as much as we can. And so trying to get the message out there that 988 is there and available for those that need a little bit of hope. And Elyssa really brought that to life through the mural," said Sarah Musik, chairwoman of the coalition, on Thursday.
Michale Hoagland from the Billings Jaycees knows how important these murals are.
"I spent a lot of my late 2010s really sad about the world. I think it was getting pretty hard to exist in the world as it was. I started to just look around for good things happening," Hoagland recalled on Thursday. "As I looked around, I found Sarah over here and Elyssa and Matt with Pay Love Forward, and we just got together and we made some good stuff happen."
The other murals will be located at the Mental Health Center and Senior High School.
Leininger anticipates starting early next month to finish by July.
"It's incredibly meaningful to have groups that come in and do these things for those that we serve. Our Gateway Horizons shelter, which, it's a brand new building, so it had some blank spaces, but it's really a safe haven for people that are fleeing domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking. They're in a really vulnerable space. To have them know that there are community partners, in addition to my team and the folks that work here and provide services every day that care, I think that's really uplifting and meaningful to people who maybe don't feel like they have anybody in their corner," said Erin Lambert, CEO of YWCA, on Thursday. "They're a very vulnerable population. Having this mural available to people who are in a dark time, I think, just brings a ray of hope and sunshine and brightness to a dark corner."
