About the artist
Russ Kruse
“My true goal is to replicate beautiful art of Native cultures as authentically as possible. My compulsion is to create accurate, detailed, museum-quality depictions of the spirit of the art, all made by hand with natural materials.” ̶ Russ Kruse
Over 35 years ago, inspired by his Cherokee heritage, Russ Kruse discovered his passion for creating reproductions of Native American artifacts. Researching many tribes through the years, his passion just continues to grow. His channeled expertise in flint knapping, carving, beadwork, feather painting, leatherwork, scrimshaw, and relief-carving have allowed Russ to make a multitude of unique art pieces. Through his carvings and artwork, he reflects the inner spirit of himself. People from many walks of life have bought his art, and his life calling is to continue the traditions behind this art and to share it with people of many cultures.
While pursuing a career in carpentry, he continued with his creations, realizing that the inspirations he used to create these pieces of art were something more than just a hobby. He began to research the origins of his biological family and discovered that he was descended from the Cherokee people. Finally having his suspicions proven right about the natural ability to create art, Russ then realized that creating this art was his heritage and his life’s calling.
Russ called San Antonio, Texas, home for most of his life. In 2009, after a second heart attack, he began a journey of traveling the Southwest in a motor home with his wife, Jan, creating and selling art fulltime. On New Year’s Day, 2011, inspired by the magic of the desert and the beautiful Arizona sunsets, they decided to make Cave Creek their “home base”. In 2013, family, including a new grandbaby, called them back home to the San Antonio area.
A love of detail work and a passion for creating drives Russ Kruse to create ever more intricate Native American headdresses. Whether a relatively simple halo style which surrounds the head, a bonnet with a hip length trail of feathers, or one with a floor length single or double trailer of feathers, Russ Kruse tackles it all with a dedication he has fostered his whole life.
Kruse’s skills were evident as a child with the budding artist re-creating Native American artifacts and weapons, particularly bows and arrows. Wood carving with Native American themes became an early focus before, as an adult, Kruse learned lazy-stitch beadwork with glass seed beads and began to make all types of beaded items: brow bands for headdresses, knife sheaths, dance items, war shirts, pipe bags, cradle boards, and a wide variety of regalia.
Deep studies by Russ Kruse into the culture of the tribes of North America, including his own Cherokee heritage, provided the insight and detail needed to gain the expertise now exhibited in his impressive body of work. Kruse’s Native American headdresses require him to have mastered many mediums: carving wood, knapping stones, beadwork, hand-stitching leather, hand-painting feathers, painting designs in acrylic on rawhide, leather, wood, and bone.
Russ Kruse works back and forth on a couple of items at once. Most every day of the week finds him at work, in solitude, for the entire day. A single Native American headdress, depending on its complexity, can take up to four months to complete. Kruse has created custom Native American headdresses for clients from photographs and has the drive to tackle most any request.
These are dramatic works of art - ones that compliment and elevate any collection of Native American or Southwest artworks.
BIOGRAPHY
Russ Keck was born in Orange, Texas, and was adopted by the Kruse family when he was three years old. As a child, Russ was introduced to the Native American culture by his uncle, who kept cases full of arrowheads that he’d found on his land and nearby. This sparked his interest in Native American culture and he soon began to create bows and arrows. Seeing his interest in handcrafting objects, his adoptive father, a carpenter, taught him how to work with wood. Russ then taught himself to carve animals out of pieces of Ash, Mesquite, Birch, and Maple trees.
Russ has sold his art to galleries, trading posts, and Native American shops in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, Utah, Colorado, Pennsylvania, and New York. In addition, he sells to collectors all over the United States, and has shipped many headdresses to a collector/musician in Finland.
Russ is available for private showings, exhibitions, and demonstrations, and teaches flint-knapping and the art of lazy-stitch beadwork to all ages. He feels that part of his calling is to teach these creative traditions so that they can be passed on to future generations.
