In 2006 Rusnak began the process of integrating his own art with his photography. He created hand-painted murals and other “hard-art” pieces specifically to use as backgrounds for his commercial and editorial work. He next added the elements of photomontage to this artistic process in a series of powerful portraits which led to his first U.S. photographic-exhibition, CLIMATE25 in 2008 at Mark Seliger’s 401 Projects Gallery.
Author, Mark Eden Horowitz speaks about John Michael Rusnak as such:
After the apocalypse, what do we call the next generation? Survivors... victims...conquerors? The beautiful ones will always get by, but how could they ever forgive us our selfishness,ignorance, and cruelties? Or will they, too, always be part of the continuum-- victim and victimizer? Are we our own weak and failed gods, full of potential-- willing to make some sacrifices, but never enough and never the right ones? Creator and destroyer. Loving and cruel. There is always hope with the young, but each generation seems weakened by what has come before. The blood pales into quicksilver-- mercury, both beautiful and poisoned. Muscle bone and flesh are sleek and supple, yet brittle, and fearful of contagion, plague and shattering. Protected by wire and glass, the lucky ones are still haunted by us -- their past -- and what they themselves will create with their ambiguous gender and humanity. Between angels and ghosts, they are the future.