about
Nelda Veronica Schrupp was born the youngest of eleven children, to Cecilia and Henry McArthur. She grew up in Carlyle on the White Bear First Nation No. 70, a reserve in Saskatchewan. After attended various boarding schools, she immigrated to the United States where she met and married Stanley Schrupp in the early 1970s. In the late 1970s, they were blessed with a daughter Erin.
After raising Erin to school age, Nelda returned to school and earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of North Dakota in 1990. She majored in art with a concentration in ceramics and a minor in jewelry and small sculpture. This exposure to metalwork enticed her to study this medium in more detail. She entered graduate school at the University of North Dakota where she received a Master of Fine Arts degree in metalsmithing, jewelry, and small sculpture in 1993.
Upon graduation, Nelda dedicated all her energy in jumpstarting her career. She set up a studio and began producing her one-of-a-kind Amuletic Forms with Audio Esthetics (wearable and handheld rattles). Immediately she made her mark in the art world by winning at art shows with her distinctive style.
“A great deal of my work revolves around the rattle, a sacred object which may be used in spiritual ceremonies.”
Nelda Schrupp
With her career underway, the print media
did not take long toke notice of her distinctive
style. Her works have been published in numerous books, newspapers, and periodicals including First American Art Magazine, Native Peoples, Indian Artist Magazine, and Lois Sherr Dubin’s North American Indian Jewelry and Adornment: From Prehistory to Present.
Nelda has work in major public collections including the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). In 1999 she was honored with the NMAI Artist Fellowship.
Her time today is a delicate balance between family, studio time, teaching, and traveling to art competitions. Nelda has been invited to be the juror and judge at numerous art shows, notably, the Haskell Indian Art Market in Lawrence, Kansas, and Red Earth Festival in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Nelda's work can also be seen at the numerous art shows and fairs she attends each year.
birthplace:
Arcola, Saskatchewan, Canada
tribal affiliation:
Ihunktewan-Nakota
Pheasant Rump Nakota First Nation
Kisby, Saskatchewan
currently based in:
Lakota, North Dakota