About This Series

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 The Work Beneath is a monthly Artist Talk Series held at Wolverine Farm Publick House in Fort Collins, Colorado. Each session features new artists — from emerging voices to seasoned makers — sharing their creative journeys and the stories that shape their work. 

These talks are:

• honest and community-centered
   
• intimate yet powerful
   
• focused on vulnerability, growth, healing, and the deeper motivations behind artistic practice
   

Whether through solo talks or panel conversations, we explore what lies underneath the art — the doubt, resilience, evolution, and humanity of being an artist and a creative.

Art doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It happens in the complicated, tender, messy places where life shapes us — through loss, joy, doubt, identity, growth, and the small moments that change everything. Yet so often, those stories stay hidden. The Work Beneath exists to change that.

Many artists move through the world feeling pressure to present only the finished product: the polished piece, the curated style, the highlight reel. But what’s missing in that picture is the truth — the part where the artist is still becoming.

The Work Beneath creates a home for that truth.

It’s a space where:

• vulnerability is welcomed, not avoided
   
• creative process is valued as deeply as creative output
   
• stories of struggle sit beside stories of joy
   
• making art becomes just one part of the larger story of being human
   

We believe that when artists speak honestly about what shapes their work — the grief, the burnout, the identity shifts, the cultural tensions, the healing, the sparks of curiosity — something powerful happens:

people recognize themselves in those stories.

And that recognition builds connection.

Connection reduces isolation.
Connection strengthens resilience.
Connection becomes a form of resistance — especially in times marked by division, fear, and overwhelm.

When people gather in a room and hear someone bravely name an experience they’ve carried alone, it expands what is possible for everyone. It reminds us that art is not only an output; it’s a conversation, a bridge, an invitation.

This series exists because stories matter — your story matters.
And we believe that when artists speak from the place beneath the art, they create openings for community, understanding, and change.