Knowing nothing about art and even less about marketing, reality started catching up, and a job became necessary. Custom Craft Marble & Stone of Orlando, turned out to be a wealth of stone working knowledge and experience. Absorbing everything available Russ was soon getting all the interesting projects and difficult repairs that came in.
Then along came the pretty girl visiting from Vermont. Marred in 1996 Russ & Sharyn moved to Vermont. Using his “marble guitar” as a resume’ Russ found work at a sculpture studio. This was trial by fire because even though everything has to be learned, at a professional level you either can or you can’t. One mistake can destroy a sculpture worth more than a years pay, whereas timid moves in stone are terribly time consuming and produce weak results. Russ spent the first year cutting giant teddy bears and doing rough-out work. His first real carving job was Italian Renaissance capitals on a statue base.