Russ was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He grew up mostly in Georgia, Texas, Oklahoma, and Virginia. A self-taught artist, writer, and musician, Russ started drawing when he was four years old, and he began doing low reliefs in copper when he was nine. He’s exhibited art in over 100 solo and group shows, and he’s published over 150 illustrations. Russ is also one of the 5,201 artists who submitted a design for World Trade Center Memorial in New York. He most recently had a solo show at the Craftshop Museum in the Village of Arden, where he’s lived and worked since 1969.

He’s published over 350 articles and editorials, and held a variety of non-profit communications and marketing positions. His work has consistently drawn rave reviews, beginning at a Hollins College Literary Festival In 1967 where James Dickey described him as “a genius.”

He began playing guitar in 1961, and he and a friend made the first-ever recording of 12-string guitarist Leo Kottke in 1965. Russ has played a variety venues from Virginia to Connecticut—and he did a university radio concert in Cuernavaca, Mexico. In 1988 he gave a solo concert in Rodney Square in Wilmington, Delaware. He and his late wife, Connee, sponsored Cuban-born classical guitarist Ernesto Tamayo’s first recital in North America in 1991, and four years later they were his guests at his solo debut concert in Carnegie Hall.

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Iced Grass 9.5” x 22.75” mixed media low relief in copper, 2010, $7,000