Celebration in Color   

“Life is a journey, and Hashem places each person in the right place at exactly the right time, to do what’s best for them at that moment,” Rus says. “And then the time comes when it’s no longer right — and then it’s time to move on.”

Montreal-based artist Rus Prupas’s journey brims with color — both literally and figuratively. She radiates a calm tranquility as she describes her multifaceted career path.

“Hashem gave me a natural creativity and the artistic talent to see things and portray them on paper, but I never thought it could be a profitable profession,” Rus says. “I knew how to draw naturally, and I took a class in portrait painting when I first got married. However, although I did well in the class, we worried that portrait painting wouldn’t be profitable.”

After several years in which Rus was immersed in raising her large family, with art placed on the back burner, Rus turned to clothing manufacturing. She opened her own business, AMICI, which became a popular line of teen clothing. She would draw designs, have them manufactured, and ran the business together with her oldest daughter, Elisheva.