by Mari Radtke
Vanguard Arts of Sioux City hosted Art Brawl III during May and June. Vanguard Arts is a not for profit organization in Sioux City dedicated to bringing music events and fine arts gatherings in fun ways. Events include music performances, Alley Art Festival, Art Brawl and Open Mic Night (Thursdays at 7pm. Open to all ages).
Vanguard Arts organized Art Brawl III into 3 rounds of challenge painting. The 24 competitors were selected randomly from a field of 33 hopefuls entered for a spot. Three nights of competition, May 18, 25 and June 1, with 4 competitors each round, 3 rounds the first two nights, sent 1 winner from each qualifying round to the Grand Championship held June 1. Winners are selected by audience votes. A featured musician performed each night.
May 18 winners were: Suhn Khuninh, Linus Countryman, Ella Karpuk
May 25 winners were: Terry McGaffin, Mikell Zishka and Crystal Puhrmann
These six talented artists were selected by their respective audiences to compete head to head for the Grand Championship! Congratulations to Crystal Puhrmann of Paullina, Art Brawl III Grand Champion!
Crystal and her long-time boyfriend, Dan, had been enjoying Vanguard Arts since about 2019. Dan is a musician and performs as well as enjoys the performances. When Art Brawl III began taking artist hopefuls, Crystal decided to give it a try.
The competition went like this: A random word generator threw out some word called “prompts.” Each artist was to create an acrylic painting (canvas and paints provided) inspired from the randomly selected word. Each painter has 30 minutes from hearing the prompt until time is called to create.

Crystal competed in 3 rounds. Her first prompt on May 25 was “loud.” In keeping with the advise of her brother, Kelly, she stayed with her cherished pets, cats. Kelly’s advice? “Whatever you do, just paint cats.” So she painted Chunky, one of her inside cats. She said, “Chunky is very loud when he is hungry.” He fit the bill and the painting won.
Round 2 on May 25 brought the next prompt, “dope.” Huh? Dope. Dope – cats. Hmmm. For Crystal and following her brother’s advice the painting became catnip and featured “Peach.” She knew what catnip looked like. “Cats love catnip. I know what catnip looks like. My cat, ‘Peach’ loves catnip. I’ve even grown it. This is perfect,” thought Crystal. So the round 2 painting was catnip with a playful “Peach.”

As the championship round approached, Dan, said to her, “You gotta draw ‘Lucky.’” “Lucky” passed away a couple years ago. The June 1 championship round prompt was “Sharp.” “Kitty claws,” was Crystal’s first thought upon hearing the prompt. She finds it interesting how she has a cat that fit each of the prompts in some way. She explained, “Lucky’s” claws had to be trimmed alot.”
The audience members interacted with the artists as they made their selections, but none knew the backstories of Crystal’s paintings.
“Just paint cats” turned out to be very good advice. Crystal won a trophy, $250 cash and bragging rights.
Crystal Puhrmann also designed the O’Brien County flag for the 100 anniversary of the Court house.