A Day in the Life: An Interview with Our Catalog Cover Artist, Mike Hagel

After 33 years, we’re ending our Day in the Life of a School Nurse catalog cover series. We know how much this cover series has meant to many of our customers over the years, so we wanted to take some time to highlight the artist behind it all: Mike Hagel. Susan Rogers, School Health’s Chief People Officer, spoke with Hagel about the impact of his cover series and what it meant to him. 

SUSAN: Can you tell us a bit about the history of this series and how you started working with School Health?

MIKE: We were introduced to each other through School Health’s advertising agency. When I spoke to Bob Cormack, Susan Rogers’ father and president of School Health at the time, he said he was looking for an artist who could paint in the style of Norman Rockwell to make their catalog covers. I did a lot of paintings in this style because it was popular and not a lot of people were doing it, so I suggested a Day in the Life of a School Nurse series. I created the first painting for the cover series in 1992.

SUSAN: School Nurses have loved this series over the years. What do you hope your impact on school nurses is through this series of paintings? What do you want them to know?

MIKE: I tried to encapsulate a day in the life of what a school nurse might be going through – the pain or the fun. For example, the cover about depression highlighted a serious issue and I felt like I was able to highlight the moment while also bringing some lightheartedness to it. Rockwell used to draw some serious stuff, too.

I always enjoyed doing this series, and I am glad to be a part of capturing the important work school nurses have done.

SUSAN: How did you find your inspiration for the cover every year? 

MIKE: Early on, I would come up with the scenario for the cover, and then I would work with School Health to add some of their products into the image. Eventually, I worked closely with the Rogers and Cormack families to decide on a subject that we wanted to address.

Besides the school nurses at NASN, we wanted to make sure that the cover was never too serious. If it did address something on the more serious side, I would always try to add a little softness to the piece with a Rockwell-style smile on one of people in the painting.

SUSAN: Why has this series been important to you over the last 33 years?

MIKE: This series has been great – I have enjoyed it. Every year was a challenge. I have gotten to meet many nurses at NASN over the years, and I would get ideas for future covers from them, too. I loved seeing the nurses at the conference – I felt like Elvis Presley with them! They would line up at my table, and I would personalize each signing.

SUSAN: Tell us a little bit about how you picked your models for each painting. Who did you use as inspiration?

MIKE: I would use neighbors and friends as models. The first cover featured my son and daughter along with some of their friends. I had a friend in the neighborhood that was the school nurse and I used her as a model for the first few catalog covers. The last cover I did featured my daughter-in-law and my grandson.

SUSAN: Which cover is your favorite and why?

MIKE: The 2019 cover. I had an image in mind that I wanted to draw after working with the school nurses for so many years.  It’s the one with the student listening to the school nurse’s heart with a stethoscope.