BETSY YOUNGQUIST

Betsy Youngquist

“When I was a little over one year of age my mother accidentally left a marker uncapped. I grabbed the marker and started drawing on a marble table in our home when my mom wasn't looking. Apparently there was something aesthetically pleasing about my scribbles. That's when this crazy life of being an artist started. It's a journey I continue to this day at age 51.”

At a young age, Betsy Youngquist was introduced to the Northwest United States and Western Canada, introducing her to First Nations, American Indian and Intuit artwork & people. These early encounters influenced her love of beads and her respect for mythological and spiritual understandings through art. 

Today, Youngquist admires cultures where art is a sacred creation. Through her sculpture, she bridges the spiritual with the mundane. Walking the line between the boundaries of logic and the mystical mysteries under the surface, Betsy Youngquist engages surrealism to conceptualize an assemblage of characters, using a range of mixed media.

"Beads are prehistoric and powerful. They are ubiquitous within human culture. Like all powerful things, they have been used for good and for evil. There is something so primordially appealing about beads."

We live in a world made of energy, and I believe objects can absorb and retain that energy. I like using old materials for this reason. Old doll parts, old glass eyes, old glass jewelry components, old beads. These materials come with their own narrative of experience that add to the narrative of each piece.”