“W

hat sells a painting is its story,” says Natalie Eversole, the new director of ArtStock Studio Tour, a program now celebrating 30 years of providing essential services for artists’ careers in Greensboro and Guilford County.

Nodding in agreement, Terry Wessling, who served as ArtStock’s director the past three years, has stayed on as assistant director so he can mentor Eversole.

“Yep,” Wessling says. “The story behind the piece. Or the story behind the artist.”

So how do those stories get shared? Well, the concept is simple.

Back in 1996, when the program was established in Greensboro by a husband-and-wife artist team, Keith and Betsy Rose, the concept of open studio tours was just being introduced across the U.S. — from Portland, Ore., to Philadelphia. If people could meet artists in their studios and homes, and see close up the artwork they produce and how they produce it, those people would be more likely to become active consumers of art.

While we may entertain romantic visions of solitary artists laboring over their passion, the simple fact is that artists can’t sustain their careers without people buying their work. Professional artists themselves, Eversole and Wessling are keenly aware of that reality.

So, on their own time and with no compensation, they’re working hard to sustain the ArtStock tradition.

They’re perfect for the job.

With her bright artist’s eyes, Eversole — the mother of a toddler — looks even younger than her years and her voice brims with the energy of youth, while Wessling — retired from a successful graphic design and marketing business — sports the grizzled hair and beard of a seasoned veteran.

Eversole was born in Raleigh and later moved to Wilmington with her parents, who own a fine art gallery.

“I grew up around artists,” she says. She never set out to be an artist, but did feel a pull to work behind the scenes.

“So I took to the science of art,” Eversole explains. “I wanted to be a painting restorer.”

Her academic choices in the U.S. were limited. Art restoration is a subset of art conservation, and the only undergraduate academic program in conservation was at the University of Delaware. And the major required a healthy dose of chemistry.

Eversole opted to begin her chemistry studies closer to home at East Carolina University. While still a freshman, she was invited to attend the Moscow Surikov State Academic Institute of Fine Arts in Russia.

“I was there about two years and finished the program in conservation,” Eversole continues. “From there, I went directly to New York, where I got a job banging on people’s doors!” She laughs at the thought.

The purpose of the knocking was to solicit business for her employer, Simon Parkes Art Conservation, a highly regarded painting restoration studio that was based near the offices of Sotheby’s. (It closed in August 2025 following Parkes’ death.)

“Simon Parkes was Sotheby’s go-to art restorer,” Eversole explains. “So I’ve worked on Picassos, Sargents, Monets, you name it. That was a special experience.”

In 2017, she returned south to Greensboro, discovering that sometime during the years of study and work, the artist bug had bit.

Here, Wessling takes up the narrative.

At the time Eversole moved to Greensboro in 2017, Wessling was sharing space with his daughter at Studio 503, where he offered graphic design while his daughter was concentrating on photography. But he also had a side quest.

“I got hooked on old, manually-operated printing equipment,” Wessling acknowledges. He has five letterpresses that are more than 100 years old. They’re enormous, cast-iron machines that were used to print newspapers and books back in the day.

“I use them to print artwork,” Wessling says with a grin. (In 2018, he started marketing his prints through ArtStock.)

Eversole also had a space at Studio 503 that she shared with a friend. Her work caught Wessling’s eye.

“As I recall, she was doing some art conservation and some painting,” Wessling says. “I think she had a couple commissions from people to paint portraits.”

At any rate, the two got to know each other.

When Wessling agreed to take over the ArtStock directorship in 2023, he hired Eversole to curate that year’s gallery show.