St. Joseph artist makes her debut at Art Crawl St. Cloud

by Frank Lee

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Laura Ruprecht of St. Joseph made her debut as an Art Crawl St. Cloud artist at the Paramount Theatre & Visual Arts Center in downtown St. Cloud.

The free art crawls are held four times a year, and Ruprecht’s exhibition in the basement of the Paramount on March 18 gave upcoming artists like her a chance to showcase her work.

“I’m just really excited to see people’s reactions because I really haven’t had a show of my own for a while,” she said as art lovers and the merely curious stopped and stared at her artwork.

Ruprecht graduated from the College of St. Benedict in 2009 and works as a studio manager at the Paramount Visual Arts Center when she isn’t bartending at a St. Joseph establishment.

“It’s great to see how many people come through or come by,” she said of the Art Crawl, which is celebrating its 11th year.

The 28-year-old greeted visitors at her exhibition during the four-hour event, which was billed as an occasion to “stroll downtown,” “meet your friends” and “buy great art.”

Art Crawls are located along the streets of downtown St. Cloud: down West St. Germain Street between Fifth Avenue N. and Ninth Avenue N.

“I think a lot of what influences me are my friends because they are all artists as well. The other thing, too, is St. Joseph has always had a really strong arts community,” Ruprecht said.

New artists can fill out an online form at www.artcrawlstcloud.com. Registration must be submitted six weeks before an upcoming Art Crawl.

“Before, I was doing a lot of portraits and a lot of people, but I transitioned from that because I really love animals . . . and especially in some of my clay works, a lot of them have personality,” Ruprecht said.

Art Crawl St. Cloud expands the arts “by taking it to the streets and into the local shops to provide downtown visitors with an engaging artistic experience,” according to its organizers.

“When I graduated from St. Ben’s, I graduated with a painting degree, and the last painting I did was the self-portrait hanging there,” Ruprecht said as she gestured to the one of her smoking.

“Since I work here at the Paramount, a lot of what I do is fire kilns, and so I did a lot of the clay work because I thought that would be easier for me to quickly make stuff and mosaics as well,” she said.

Other local and regional artists like Squirt Blossom Uniques from St. Joseph were also hosted by downtown St. Cloud businesses such as Falcon National Bank or Cream City Tattoo.

“I love being an artist, or I devote a lot of time to it, because it’s a way I can express myself and it’s how I can communicate to others what I see in my mind, so they can see it as well,” Ruprecht said. “I think that’s one of my favorite things about being an artist – and seeing their reactions.”