Meet the Artist
"Bendy the Creator"
Hi there, my name is L. Erica Betts. I am more commonly known across the internet as "Bendy the Creator". I was born and raised in Southern California, where art has always had a big influence in my life. I come from a family of creative minds, all who have embraced and encouraged my artistic progress. I am completely self-taught and am a
Hi there, my name is L. Erica Betts. I am more commonly known across the internet as "Bendy the Creator". I was born and raised in Southern California, where art has always had a big influence in my life. I come from a family of creative minds, all who have embraced and encouraged my artistic progress. I am completely self-taught and am always looking for ways to improve my work. However, art was always my second love. My passion has always been for animals, especially bats. I get asked all the time, "Why bats, Bendy?" The answer is a fairly simple one.
In the summer of 2020, I started making art dolls as a way to pass the time during the COVID quarantine. I had already developed skills for hyper-realistic drawing, painting, and sculpting. I decided to teach myself to sew on YouTube, and stumbled onto KaypeaCreations tutorials for building "art dolls". Immediately I was hooked on it and began making them for fun and later selling them as a hobby.
In October of 2020, I made my first bat as a decoration for a Halloween. I proudly posted him to my social media, and was immediately flooded with positive feedback and requests to make more. My post eventually made its way to a bat enthusiast group on Facebook, where it was shared over 200 times! I was approached by several people who offered me money to make a bat for them too. I scrambled to make myself a website, a Facebook page, and a workshop so I could begin taking commissions for more bats.
About a year later, pictures of one of my bat dolls was shared to a taxidermy group, where it was mistaken for a stuffed specimen. I was approached by several taxidermists who criticized my post and deemed it in-humane. It was then that I learned about the ethics and legalities of bat taxidermy and preservation. I was floored at first, and then fascinated by the topic. I had no idea how unethical (and in most cases illegal) it is to purchase or possess a specimen of a deceased bat. Ever since then, I have been trying to drown out the market for unethical and imported bat preservation and replace it with a humane, ethical, cruelty-free alternative. I use my TikTok and other social media platforms to educate the public about the dangers and damages of the unethical bat poaching industry.