The painting Diversity is the artist’s first foray into the Head Games series that explores the tension and torment expressed through facial fragments and linear patterns. Coined by the artist as illustrated portraiture, it represents a contemporary style that is a departure from more traditional work produced by Russ in the past.

“The longer I looked at this painting the more I realized that it looked familiar. Perhaps as a kid, I saw that old June 1950 issue of TIME Magazine, the issue that profiled Pablo Picasso. Is it possible that these images imprinted themselves into my subconscious?”