Seattle exhibit tells pandemic stories of 150 healthcare workers

Since May 2020, Seattle-based artist Jayashree Krishnan had painted 150 portraits of healthcare workers on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic, a body of work with all the makings of a powerful and timely exhibition. But there was one problem: she no longer had the paintings.

At the height of her project, Krishnan was receiving frequent requests for the portraits, including an entire set for the healthcare workers at Virginia Mason Hospital. She would paint as many as three portraits per day, take cell phone photos of the artworks for her records, and mail out the originals.

While a formal exhibit featuring the whole collection initially seemed impossible due to the absence of the actual paintings, Krishnan eventually came across Mixtiles, whose product turns pictures into photo tiles that stick and re-stick to walls. Working with Mixtiles, she partnered with Seattle’s Columbia City Gallery on “Caring for Humanity,” a display of all 150 portraits that the gallery hosted from February 19-21.

Alongside the photo tiles of Krishnan’s portraits, the exhibit also featured written firsthand accounts of the healthcare workers’ experiences with the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic, so that visitors could view the paintings in context.

According to Krishnan, with about five people allowed in at a time due to COVID-19 safety protocols, the gallery attracted 50 visitors per day for the exhibit — with lines forming out the door. The turnout was particularly sizable, she added, given that most visitors were not yet vaccinated when the gallery hosted the display.

“The gallery never expected that many people to show up, especially during a pandemic. They said they never had such a strong response to any previous exhibit,” Krishnan.

Describing the emotional nature of the exhibit, Krishnan said that some visitors were not able to look through the entire display in a single visit. She recounted that one particular visitor kept returning to the gallery for 20 minutes per day in order to complete the experience.

Regarding the healthcare workers who were the subjects of her portraits, Krishnan noted, “They worked long hours, under difficult conditions, for many months. By the time March 2021 came around, for the first time they had a chance to step back and process what happened. Everyone has been affected by the pandemic, whether you’re in the health profession or not. That’s why the nature of this project and the stories associated with it are just very real.”

Krishnan’s project marked the latest uplifting moment for Mixtiles users during the pandemic. Last July, hundreds of employees at Jersey City Medical Center received an emotional boost when Andrew Andres, a cardiac surgical tech at that hospital who is also an artist, designed an illustration of a medical professional lifting the entire planet in order to symbolize the workload which health professionals are facing in these times. Andres then reached out to Mixtiles, which proceeded to donate over 300 photo tiles of the illustration that he distributed as gifts to his colleagues.

“The artwork is a token of endless gratitude from one health care provider to another,” Andres said. “It is an honor to work alongside some of the most selfless and caring individuals and I hope this art lends some solace in whatever form that may be.”

Earlier on the in pandemic, with access to thousands of donated photo tiles as part of an art therapy initiative launched by Mixtiles, hospitalized children were able to surround themselves with images of their loved ones — whom they could not see in person both due to ongoing stay-at-home orders and the visitation restrictions implemented by children’s hospitals nationwide. Medical facilities which introduced these community-driven, Mixtiles-sponsored art therapy programs included UC Davis Children’s Hospital in Sacramento, The Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago, Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., Akron Children’s Hospital, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Florida’s Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, Holtz Children’s Hospital in Miami, Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore and New York’s BronxCare Health System.

Krishnan said that Mixtiles “checked all the boxes in terms of what I was looking for,” as the tiles were easy to use and the entire display at Columbia City Gallery took only a few hours to set up.

Moving forward, the artist is shifting her focus to promoting a coffee table book that features all 150 of her portraits and the healthcare workers’ personal stories. The book is available through Krishnan’s website.