Visual Arts
355 W. Monticello St.
Brookhaven, Mississippi
John Ruskey is a worker bee in the colony of his Queen, the Mississippi River. He builds voyageur style canoes for use on the wild waters of the Lower Mississippi River, and is one of the most experienced builders of dugout canoes in the country. In 1998/99 John apprenticed to master canoe builder Ralph Frese in the construction of his first cypress strip voyageur canoe, The Ladybug 27’ cypress strip voyageur canoe. In 2007 Chinook elder & master canoe builder George Lagergren (94y/o) asked John to renovate 2 of his traditional Chinook dugouts which are now ceremonially housed in tribal headquarters, Wilapa Bay Washington. In the past 20 years he has built dozens of big canoes, both dugouts and strippers, each a unique and functional work of art that now spend their lives working the Mississippi River.