Shuster spent most of his artistic career in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he became close friends with John Sloan. Shuster was born in Philadelphia and studied to be an electrical engineer before he began to study art with William Server. After serving in World War I, Shuster and his wife moved out to Santa Fe, where he met Sloan and many other artists, including Jozef Bakos, Willard Nash, Fremont Ellis, and Walter Mruk, with whom he formed Los Cinco Pintores in 1921. Shuster would also join the New Mexico Painters and exhibit around the nation with these and other modern art groups throughout his career. Shuster was a leader in the social, as well as the artistic scene in New Mexico, helping to design floats for the annual Hysterical Parade and the giant paper Zozobra puppet for the Santa Fe Fiesta each year.
