Mosaic key art for the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, by Charis Tsevis
Every Voice. Every Story. Every Table., key art for AACN, 2026.
Every year the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) commissions art for the theme of its incoming president. For 2026–27, the theme is Every Voice. Every Story. Every Table., chosen by AACN President Tonka Williams. I had the honor of making its key art: a mosaic of three nurses, built from photographs of real nurses at work and at AACN’s national conference.
Nurses are the profession I admire and respect more than any other. I am truly grateful to AACN, and especially to Deborah DeLisi and the creative team, for trusting me with this commission and for a collaboration I will remember.
- Client: AACN, American Association of Critical-Care Nurses
- Artist: Charis Tsevis, Tsevis Studio
- Commission: key art for the 2026–27 presidential theme, Oct 2025 – May 2026
- Deliverables: a main image, a second image of a single nurse, and three animations in two formats
- Main image size: 22,500 × 13,800 pixels (75 × 46 inches at 300 ppi), with a smaller version
- Technique: photographic mosaic created using Mozaix, my proprietary mosaic software, featuring authentic nurse photographs provided by AACN
- Shown at: NTI 2026, AACN’s National Teaching Institute, San Diego, 17–20 May 2026
A twenty-year tradition
Theme Art is a yearly AACN tradition. Each incoming president chooses a theme phrase, and an artist is commissioned to make art that grows from it and from the story of their nursing journey. Past phrases include Courage to Soar, Unstoppable, and Rooted in Strength. AACN has commissioned this art for over twenty years.
In October 2025, Deborah DeLisi of AACN’s creative team found me on Behance. In a small focus group, nurses had asked for art that is simple, energizing, uplifting, and proud, and they had liked my mosaic portraits. They could picture an image of nurses, made from photos of actual nurses.
The AACN 2026–2027 Theme: Every Voice. Every Story. Every Table.
AACN President Tonka Williams explains the theme in her president’s column as a declaration that every time you speak up, your voice matters; your story matters because of every experience you carry; and every table matters because in any space you enter, you belong there.
“The more voices we welcome, the more we learn. The more stories we understand, the better we care. And the more seats we create at the table, the stronger our profession becomes.”AACN President Tonka Williams
Two conditions shaped everything. A single portrait was not an option, because AACN wanted the art to reflect the diversity of its nurses: gender, ethnicity, age. And the image had to feel like friendship and community, without anyone holding hands or linking arms.
One idea: three nurses, one table
I placed three nurses shoulder to shoulder, close enough to read as one group, and gave each of them one word of the theme. Voice sits above the first, Story above the second, Table above the third.
AACN’s creative team had proposed two reference poses. They liked how upbeat, professional, and caring the nurses looked, and they asked for more: more energy, a wider frame, no face masks, no logos on the stethoscopes and badges too vague to read a hospital name.
Energy was the main note of the second round. The art should have the movement of my earlier mosaics for Cyprus Airways, where pieces fly off the edge of the image. Here, photographs drift away from the shoulders and the hair as if the group were still arriving.
A face made of faces
AACN shared several thousand photographs of nurses: roughly seventy percent of nurses on the job, and thirty percent from their annual conference. Mozaix chooses where each photograph goes by its color, its tone and its position. Step closer to the full-size file and each cheek, each smile, each collar becomes a crowd: a nurse at a bedside, a team at a screen, a speaker on a stage.
The image was built at 22,500 × 13,800 pixels, which is 75 by 46 inches at 300 ppi, so it could work on a stage wall as well as on a phone. The background is a separate layer that AACN can switch on or off, and I explored the color in three palettes, always anchored in the blues of the scrubs.
Detail at full size. Images property of American Association of Critical-Care Nurses.
Detail at full size. Images property of American Association of Critical-Care Nurses.
Detail at full size. Images property of American Association of Critical-Care Nurses.
Detail at full size. Images property of American Association of Critical-Care Nurses.
Detail at full size. Images property of American Association of Critical-Care Nurses.
Detail at the edge, where photographs drift away. Images property of American Association of Critical-Care Nurses.
The second image: a nurse who could be you
AACN also requested a single-nurse image, with no mask and no surgical cap. I wanted any nurse to be able to look at it and think: this could be me.
This portrait is built from icons instead of photographs: an open book, a chat bubble, a monitor, a graduation cap, a syringe, an IV bag, a stethoscope, a heart. I redrew AACN’s own icons in the same style as mine, so that the portrait is made of the visual language of the profession itself.
The second image: a single nurse made of icons.
Detail of the second image.
Detail of the second image, at the eyes.
In motion
Three animations bring the mosaic to life, each in a horizontal 16:9 and a vertical 1080 × 1920 format, between 15 and 30 seconds long. Two use AACN’s own footage of nurses, while the tiles come alive. In the third, shown here, a pictogram of two colleagues exchanging a high five opens onto the icons that gather into the nurse’s portrait.
Animation 3 of 3, 15 seconds. Also on Vimeo.
On stage and on the wall at NTI 2026
The art met its audience at NTI 2026, AACN’s National Teaching Institute and Critical Care Exposition, held 17–20 May 2026 at the San Diego Convention Center. It appeared on the main stage screen, on the wall of the convention center and in AACN’s social media.
On the main stage at NTI 2026.
The art on the stage screen.
From the audience.
The printed wall.
At the wall.
At the wall.
At the wall.
In the convention center hall.
The art as AACN’s Facebook cover.
Thank you
I have made portraits of presidents, athletes and artists. This is the work I am proudest to put next to them, because it is for the nurses. Thank you to everyone at AACN, and thank you to every nurse whose photograph is part of this mosaic.
Credits
- Client: AACN (American Association of Critical-Care Nurses)
- Creative team at AACN: Deborah DeLisi and the creative team
- Artwork, mosaic and animation: Charis Tsevis, Tsevis Studio
- Theme: Every Voice. Every Story. Every Table., AACN President Tonka Williams, 2026–27
- Photographs of nurses: supplied by AACN
Questions
What is AACN Theme Art?
Theme Art is a yearly tradition of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. Each incoming president chooses a theme phrase, and an artist is commissioned to make art that grows from it.
Who made the art for AACN’s 2026–27 theme?
The key art for Every Voice. Every Story. Every Table. was made by the Greek artist and designer Charis Tsevis at Tsevis Studio, with photographs of real nurses supplied by AACN.
How was the key art made?
It is a photographic mosaic. Mozaix, the mosaic software Charis Tsevis develops, places several thousand photographs of nurses at work and at AACN’s conference by color, tone and position, so that three nurses appear from a distance and thousands of real moments appear up close.
Can I use the artwork?
The artwork is licensed exclusively to AACN. For any use, please contact AACN.
