In the early days of the pandemic, Utah artist Heather Olsen wanted to pay tribute to the nurses and frontline workers who were risking their lives to save others.
The first painting Heather created that connected to the pandemic.
In the early days of the pandemic, Utah artist Heather Olsen wanted to pay tribute to the nurses and frontline workers who were risking their lives to save others.
“I was really moved by their sacrifice, especially the nurses and doctors who went to help in New York last spring,” she says. “With all the fear and unknowns early in the pandemic. It was a scary time for everyone. As an artist I remember thinking, ‘What can I do?’ Then the thought came to me to paint the nurses and healthcare workers. I wanted to honor them.”
The first painting Heather created that connected to the pandemic was of a nurse putting on her gloves. Heather says she thought about what it might be like preparing for a shift. Eventually she did a few other paintings of nurses working in different settings. “I tried to put myself in their shoes and imagine the emotions.”
Caregivers across the state were touched by Heather’s depiction of their effort and struggles and wanted prints of the paintings.
The new painting is called, “Together We Can Do This.”
“Together We Can Do This”
Soon after, Heather collaborated with Intermountain to create a much larger painting to honor all of our caregivers. The painting features a group of nurses, doctors, a respiratory therapist, and other clinical and non-clinical workers coming together to fight the pandemic.
“The idea was to show how we are all in this together and to convey hope that we can get through it,” she says.
Heather immediately had a concept for the painting and began to sketch it, even though she didn’t have a reference for everything. “This is going to get a little spiritual, but I felt like I had help on this painting because it’s really big and a multi-figure piece that normally would require redrawing,” she says. “This worked out better than I ever anticipated.”
“When I look at it, first I think of the fear we all went through initially, the hardship of COVID, and everything shutting down,” Heather says. “The entire year is wrapped into this concept with the vaccine at the bottom, which has hope for me. The message really is we can handle this, we can do this. When I look at it, I see hope.”
Maria Black, RN, a nurse administrator at Utah Valley Hospital, says she was taken aback by the teamwork captured in Heather’s painting.
“This painting—this work of art—recognizes all of those individuals, all the nurses, and all who have taken care of patients in a year that we didn’t know what to expect, or we didn’t know what to do to help our patients,” Maria said, in a speech translated by KSL.
“The first thing that caught my eye was how well it represented us. And by us, I mean, all the caregivers,” Jay Larsen, RN, from the ED at Intermountain Medical Center told FOX 13 News. “There are things that wouldn’t have been accomplished and couldn’t have been accomplished without the rest of the team.”
“It’s our hope that all caregivers, no matter if they work at the bedside or they support those who do, will see this gesture from Heather as a recognition of their efforts through a very tough pandemic, and provide some hope for the future,” says Amy Christensen, RN, chief nursing officer for Specialty-based Care.
Heather adds, “I hope when you see the painting, you’re reminded of what we’ve been through, both the good and the bad. It’s not going to last forever, but maybe, hopefully the world will be a better place. My heart goes out to all of you.”
Prints of the painting, entitled “Together We Can Do This,” will be distributed to Intermountain’s hospitals and facilities over the next few weeks. You can also order a personal print of the painting through the Intermountain Print Center. Please limit your order to no more than five prints. Your order will be delivered by courier to your work location.
Watch the unveiling of the new painting for frontline caregivers.
See more of Heather’s artwork at www.heatherolsenart.com.
Watch a news conference about the painting.
Media coverage of the painting unveiling: