CHARLOTTE, N.C. — In March of 2020, artist Anna Dean was preparing sculptures for a thesis presentation at Winthrop University.

Dean’s presentation, and everything else at schools across North Carolina, were put on pause as Gov. Roy Cooper put the state on COVID-19 lockdown. Dean found herself searching for another creative outlet.

“Art has always been for me, a way to make sense out of things I don’t understand,” Dean says.

The McColl Center for Art Innovation was looking for an artist-in-residence at Atrium Health to create art based on the hospital's heath care workers during COVID-19.

"I thought, ‘Well that’s absolutely the perfect fit.' This thing feels chaotic, the hospital is trying to make order of it, which is exactly what my work is about,” Dean says.

Dean was awarded the artist-in-residence position, spending months talking to doctors, nurses, and spending time with hospital staff.

“We hear data, and we hear numbers, but all of us were hungry to hear stories from doctors and nurses and people who were facing it, and what does it look like and what does it mean,” Dean questioned.

She created large panels of COVID-19 statistics mixed with maps of Charlotte, but her latest piece was a sculpture made of used vials from an Atrium Health mass vaccination event.

“Each one of these drops is a life, you know, each one of these drops is a life and I just feel so blessed to have been here, to live to this moment, to get to hold these things in my hand,” Dean says.

Atrium Health gave Dean a stipend to help her create her sculptures. They will get the first opportunity to buy the art she created during her residency.