Earl Biss
                  1947-1998

Earl Biss's paintings represent the Indians leaving the land, receding away, and crossing the river of life to the spiritual side. This because the white man took the Indians land and with that their way of life, their heritage and even their lives, and all that was left was the 'happy hunting ground in the sky', their spiritual life, so that's what Earl Biss paints. The Indians leaving, riding away to their spiritual life, all that's left. That's why he signed his paintings on the top and not the bottom, in the sky and not on the ground. I asked Earl Biss once if this was true also for the white man, who will leave this earth for 'the spiritual side,' and he said yes. I've seen no other painter touch this subject. Besides this, Earl Biss was a hell of an artist. He once told me "God paints through me." I believe him. - Dr. Peter Wylan

Biss was born Sept. 29, 1947, in Renton, Wash., and was taken six days later to the Crow Nation in Montana, where he was raised by his grandmother. He attended the Institute of American Indian Arts from 1965 to 1966 and later studied at the San Francisco Art Institute from 1966 to 1972. He continued his artistic training in Europe and South America. He lived in Durango in 1971.

Earl Biss Jr. an internationally renowned artist and master oil painter, died of a stroke Sunday, Oct. 18, 1998 in Santa Fe, N.M. He was 51.