"My paintings might suggest a harmony of man and nature, a combining of rigid line and free flowing spontaneity, bubbling with rich color with the disciplined design of the hard edge technique. I am not concerned with capturing the outward image of nature, but rather those powers or forces of nature which play such an important part or basis for the way things are. A concept of reality drawn from spontaneous abstractions, and controlled with the subtlety I wield as the creator."
-Earl Biss, 1995

Earl Biss, Absaroke (Crow), was born on September 29, 1947 in Renton, Washington; he was raised by his grandmother at Crow Agency, Montana, and at Yakima, Washington. He contracted rheumatic fever at age eight and instead of the usual boyhood activities, he started drawing and painting. Biss's first oils were done at age twelve, but his formal training did not start until age sixteen at the then new Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, where he studied jewelry and three-dimensional art from 1963-65. After graduation, Biss received a scholarship to the San Francisco Art Institute where he studied oil painting.