Lost & Found

This mural was created in 2018 by Mario Sanchez to promote suicide awareness month (which is September). The dedication to this mural reads “For those who are dealing with or have dealt with depression.”

The maze inside the letters of the word “Lost” symbolizes the winding path experienced by those who have contemplated suicide and the script lettering of the word “found” traces out the journey through the maze from start to finish as one moves from the left of the mural (with the symbols of darkness and night) to the right of the mural (with the symbols of daylight and the dove which symbolizes hope. The semicolon (;) is symbol indicating that one thought about suicide but chose life. What could have been a period was instead a semicolon as the sentence continued on. Some survivors tattoo a “;” to remind them of the positive choice that they made.

This visual theme is a popular one for the artist and he has created other commissioned works of the same theme.

Photo courtesy of Mario Sanchez.