Earl Biss (1947-1998) was a member of the Absarokee (Crow) tribe and was raised by his grandmother at the Crow Agency, Montana, and at Yakima, Washington. He started drawing and painting at an early age due to a childhood illness. His first oils were done at age twelve, but his formal training did not start until he was sixteen at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. Although he studied in the style of Abstract Expressionists, he differed with the style in that rather than beginning with process, his paintings began with ideas and then he would start to "move paint". His deep connection with his subjects is obvious in the way the stories come alive through the way he "moved" that paint.