ORLANDO. Fla. — Over the past 15 months, as COVID-19 cases surged and then fell, health-care workers in Orlando and across the globe stepped up to help care for patients. Many of them sacrificed much of their own time to care for others for months on end.

Now, a new art exhibit in Orlando is helping thank these health-care heroes.

“I still don’t believe it," Orlando artist Nelson Cárdenas said. "It’s every artist’s dream.”

Inside the Orange County Regional History Center, the faces of health-care workers look back at those coming through the lobby. 

“I know everybody on the wall,” said Dr. Patricia Couto, an infectious diseases physician with Orlando Health at Orlando Regional Medical Center.

Couto looks at her own painting and others surrounding her along the wall: doctors, nurses, chaplains with whom she is familiar. 

“I think that this past year has been like nothing I’ve ever experienced,” Couto said. 

The pain of the pandemic shows on their faces in the paintings.

“You can see it in people’s eyes," Cárdenas said. "People look tired. They were confused." 

Each painting shows a frontline worker at Orlando Health. Using a blowtorch for fire and oil paints, Cárdenas spends hours each day to create each one. 

“It’s actually my refuge," he said. 'I escape from the news about COVID (by) painting. I don’t have to think about COVID in that time. That’s my escape, my therapy, and it’s a reward in itself."

Cárdenas created many of the paintings hanging at the history center soon after the pandemic took hold. Over at Dr. P. Phillips Hospital, the pieces weathered a full year of COVID-19, displayed for health-care workers to see. 

'You can see it in people’s eyes,' artist Nelson Cárdenas said of the emotions he saw on health-care workers faces and captured in paintings during the COVID-19 pandemic. 'People look tired. They were confused.'

"Really when he finished them, we thought it would be a really nice opportunity to give something back to our employees who at that point were a couple months into the pandemic, and people had been working really hard," said Thibaut van Marcke, president of Orlando Health Dr. P. Phillips Hospital. "We thought it would be a really nice way to provide something uplifting."

Now, newer, brighter paintings of frontline workers painted months later hang with the others nearby. 

“It’s a continuation of a beautiful story that started with hardship and endurance and people just doing amazing things out there," Cárdenas said. "But the new series represents more life, color, sparkle and a little light at the end of the tunnel.” 

Pam Schwartz, executive director of the Orange County Regional History Center added, “The minute we saw these, we knew we had to find a way to have them.” 

Now, Cárdenas’ works have their own exhibit inside, each piece immortalizing every sacrifice made by health-care workers like Couto so they could help more patients.

“I really think this is a tribute to everybody who took very personal, important sacrifices to serve and take care of patients," Couto said. "This is something very beautiful."

Cárdenas said he's grateful to see his work having an impact on those who’ve impacted us all.

“I think I’ve got to pinch myself sometimes to believe it,” Cárdenas said. 

The art exhibit "Health-care Heroes: Portraits of Orlando Health’s Frontline Workers" will run through August 15 at the Orange County Regional History Center. ​