Betsy Youngquist

Betsy started applying beads to the surface of her watercolor paintings over twenty years ago and has continued to include embellishment as the driving technique in a variety of media. Today the artist is known for her innovative beaded mosaics. Creating through the narrative lens of surrealistic anthropomorphism, Betsy’s sculptures explore the interconnection between man and the natural world. When creating her embellished sculptures, Betsy starts with either a hand carved form or a found object. The surfaces are encrusted with beads and found materials in a mosaic process, often incorporating fragments of old porcelain dolls. During the past dozen years, Youngquist has exhibited her work at the National Museum of Women in the Arts and the Smithsonian Craft Show in Washington, D.C., the VIDA Museum in Borgholm, Sweden, and SOFA Chicago. “Children with their vast capacity for wonderment weave tales of gossamer, create magic kingdoms, and pass through invisible portals to lands of untold enchantment. As we follow the Yellow Brick Road in quest of Emerald Cities, those portals become hidden to us, removing our access to the wonderland within. Creating art is a means to return to the looking glass and reenter the garden where flowers whisper and birds can talk. As my beaded characters emerge they carry with them tales from the other side of the mirror. I am grateful for the joy and astonishment experienced through this journey.”