Little^ Kingphoto:^JasonKruppa^betsy youngquist’s crea-
tures are “all harmless and
charming, but they can be off-
putting because they’re not quite
right,” says the 54-year-old art-
ist, speaking from the spacious
attic studio in her Rockford,
Illinois, home. She uses beads,
quartz crystals, and antique doll
parts – all lovely by themselves –
but combines them to create
disquieting hybrid creatures:
a bird standing on pale, skinny
human legs, a dragonfly nymph
that seems true to its species
except for its human eyes, teeth,
and lips.
The roots of Youngquist’s
creativity trace back to her child-
hood. Her parents enrolled her
and her two younger brothers
in art, music, drama, and dance
classes, “to see where we landed,
interest-wise.” During one
summer-long Airstream family
trip to Alaska, she became fas-
cinated with Northwest Coast
artifacts and Native Americanright:
My Secret Garden
(Rabbit Running
with Human Face),
2016, mixed media,
14 x 19 x 6 in.
top right:
Eye Shine, 2017,
mixed media,
6 x 6 x 3 in.
beadwork. In high school, art
was her favorite subject, “but
there was no pathway to
becoming an artist,” she says.
She turned to another love,
biology, studying at Chicago’s
North Park University. (She
was already certified as a scuba
diver and joined the Cousteau
Society.) Just a few years later,
she returned to her first pas-
sion, earning a master’s in arts
education at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison.Returning to Rockford, her
hometown, Youngquist began
incorporating bits of foil paper
and beads into her watercolors.
She met R. Scott Long, her
partner for more than 20 years,
through a mutual friend when
they were both “fledgling Rock-
ford artists.” The two began col-
laborating on three-dimensional
bead-covered animals. He made
the figures out of epoxy clay,
wire, and urethane foam; she
added doll parts and beading.“I’m a surrealist,
which means creating
something that
isn’t quite in sync
with our real,
physical world.”44 american craft aug/sept 19