In The NoCo

A Denver Art Museum exhibit helps visitors confront tough emotions – with help from cuddly, crocheted monsters

By In The NoCo,

Ariel Lavery, Erin O'Toole, Brad Turner

Published May 29, 2025 at 5:35 AM MDT

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Sadie Young, a woman with red-brown hair, wearing heart-frame glasses, a black shirt and slacks and rainbow-colored crocheted sleeves, poses in the open mouth of a crocheted brightly colored monster head. It's part of an exhibit she created on display now at the Denver Art Museum. — "The shadow self is kind of the host for things like anger, fear, grief, stress, anxiety," says artist Sadie Young, whose new exhibit at the Denver Art Museum features brightly colored monsters made from yarn. "I was trying to personify the shadow self by using the idea of inner monsters in a fun, silly, more approachable way."

Fear. Anxiety. Shame. And a horde of colorful, crocheted monsters.

It’s all part of a new exhibit at the Denver Art Museum that asks visitors to confront some uncomfortable emotions.

Denver artist Sadie Young has created cuddly and soft monsters with vivid colors and big eyes. And they’re all crocheted out of thousands of yards of yarn. Some are large enough for visitors to step inside.

The exhibit, called The Tangled Self, draws on both her artistic experience and her educational background in psychology, particularly the concept of the shadow self.

Sadie is also the founder and creative director of Spectra Art Space, which specializes in immersive installations. She joined Erin O’Toole to talk about her new exhibit at the DAM, the inspiration behind the creatures, and how she got started with crocheting.

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In The NoCo

KUNC's In The NoCo is a daily slice of stories, news, people and issues. It's a window to the communities along the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The show brings context and insight to the stories of the day, often elevating unheard voices in the process. And because life in Northern Colorado is a balance of work and play, we celebrate the lighter side of things here, too.

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Ariel Lavery

Ariel Lavery grew up in Louisville, Colorado and has returned to the Front Range after spending over 25 years moving around the country. She co-created the podcast Middle of Everywhere for WKMS, Murray State University’s NPR member station, and won Public Media Journalism awards in every season she produced for Middle of Everywhere. Her most recent series project is "The Burn Scar", published with The Modern West podcast. In it, she chronicles two years of her family’s financial and emotional struggle following the loss of her childhood home in the Marshall Fire.

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Erin O'Toole

As the host of KUNC’s new program and podcast In the NoCo, I work closely with our producers and reporters to bring context and diverse perspectives to the important issues of the day. Northern Colorado is such a diverse and growing region, brimming with history, culture, music, education, civic engagement, and amazing outdoor recreation. I love finding the stories and voices that reflect what makes NoCo such an extraordinary place to live.

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Brad Turner

Brad Turner is an executive producer in KUNC's newsroom. He manages the podcast team that makes In The NoCo, which also airs weekdays in Morning Edition and All Things Considered. His work as a podcaster and journalist has appeared on NPR's Weekend Edition, NPR Music, the PBS Newshour, Colorado Public Radio, MTV Online, the Denver Post, Boulder's Daily Camera, and the Longmont Times-Call.

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