SALT LAKE CITY — A painting honoring frontline workers for their efforts during the pandemic was unveiled Monday by Intermountain Healthcare.
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The painting, titled “Together We Can Do This," was created by Utah artist Heather Olsen and dedicated to the men and women who helped save those affected by COVID-19.
Nurses, doctors, therapists and other workers are depicted in Olsen's painting. Prints of the painting will be distributed to Intermountain hospitals and facilities, with caregivers being given the chance to receive personal copies.
Olsen said she was inspired to create the painting after seeing frontline workers sacrifice their own safety during the early parts of the pandemic.
“I was really moved by their sacrifice, especially the nurses and doctors who went to help in New York last spring,” said Olsen. “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.”
“When I look at it, first I think of the fear we all went through initially, the hardship of COVID, and everything shutting down. 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.”
Caregivers shown in the painting were pleased with how it turned out.
“The first thing that caught my eye was how well it represented us. And by us, I mean, all the caregivers,” said Jay Larsen, RN, an emergency medicine nurse at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, upon seeing the painting. “There are things that would not have been accomplished and could not have been accomplished without the rest of the team.”