His California Funk work contrasted sharply with the more formal abstraction dominant in the department at his arrival.
Yuristy and his colleague Joe Fafard were sympathetic to the concerns addressed by Gilhooly's approach and began to incorporate them into their own work.
[4] Yuristy set up a studio in Silton, Saskatchewan in 1970 where he worked on ink drawings of both animals and humans travelling in imaginary vehicles.
Over the next few years, this led to exhibition opportunities outside of Saskatchewan for Yuristy with other Regina artists even though he later put aside his work in clay to concentrate on large public sculpture, painting and printmaking.
[4] In 1981 the Dunlop Art Gallery organized 'Russell Yuristy, Sculpture 1971–1981 in Photographs and Drawings', which toured to the Swift Current National Exhibition Centre.