Earl Biss: Thoughts on Art

I believe my work was most influenced by the European masters —the violent translucent skies of Turner, the impressionistic brush work of Monet, the illusive suggestiveness of Whistler's landscapes. I also have a great admiration for the stark emotional statements of Munch and Kokoschka. I was much taken by the landscapes of the American painter Albert Pinkham Ryder and by the garish color schemes of the Fauve movement. I believe that my work projects these admirations with obvious awareness of the freedom of Pollock, DeKooning, and the action painters of the late fifties.

I have always been most concerned with the quality of paint as opposed to the statement. I consider myself an oil painter and am obsessed with stretching the medium to every limit I can find. I have painted in oils since age twelve. Diligently working hours on end in the studio, I have become so at ease with my medium that at times the fluid spontaneity with which I work happens almost automatically. I have no recognition of what others may call accident. I often utilize unorthodox effects to cause visual excitement. In my mind there are no limitations to the manner in which paint may be applied to the canvas. After I find an interesting effect and use it over and over again, this effect may become a tool.

At times I challenge my own knowledge of the ways of paint. I cause problems for myself to solve that keep me stumped for months. I very seldom sketch out a premeditated work. I feel my greatest pieces have come spontaneously —frantically pushing paint, color, and texture around on a clean surface — juggling the canvas, turning it sideways and upside down, letting gravity move the paint, often splashing solvents on the surface, rubbing with a rag back to the white surface. It's not unusual for a painting to change several times before completion. Some works that have stagnated and resisted my conclusions have found a corner of the studio to wait, at times for months, until I have come to the answer. Some have been worked and reworked until their texture is gnarly and an inch or so thick.

I have worked on as many as thirty canvases at a time. I rarely work on one piece from start to finish. Working on several pieces at once gives me the freedom to rest from an immediate problem and release that tension that otherwise might force desperate resolves that would be selfish conclusions, instead of those that should be a natural growth process. I give each piece credit for having a life of its own that with nurturing and patience will give me direction which will bring it to finality.

My greatest excitement is in the act of painting. Once I have concluded that a piece is finished, I can usually discard it from my mind and continue on to another surface, very much like one would work through a sketchbook. I particularly enjoy working on large paintings.
The manner in which I work is fast and vigorous. Large canvases allow me the freedom to wield a brush with great sweeps. The action caught on the surface is directly a result of the action with which the stroke was made. Small canvases are the most difficult to execute. Contained in a small area, much of the otherwise spontaneous action is inhibited. In my entire painting career I doubt if I have painted more than half a dozen painting out of doors from life. I have several times used photographs for reference, but almost exclusively paint entirely from
canvas to lead me to the imagery.

I draw my current subject matter from the rich cultural background of my people, the Crow Nation of the northern plains, who were once a nomadic people roaming the plains freely, people with a spirituality built upon a oneness with the earth and the elements. Their lore was immersed in natural powers, the ability to conjure direction from the Gods which are one with every being, whether it be live or inanimate.

As a painter, I am first concerned with the medium, the cause and effect, the actual application of paint and the way colors interact to stir the mood of the observer. Contorting design elements for my amusement-sometimes out of boredom with repetition—| have at times sought to make personal statements. These rare canvases have a closeness to my inner opinion and have in their nature often such a vile or unsettling way that I would not subject an audience to their presence. Given the choice of what to say through my work to a captive audience, I choose to portray calm, alluring scenes, void of the anguish that annoys the serenity I feel we all would much rather have. The world that I would have us all live in and experience is a world that perhaps only the imagination will allow us. In my own way I have devised through my art work an escape mechanism that I admittedly use to relieve myself from the desperation of day to day reality. Most people I encounter have the desire to be removed from the pressures and anxieties of today. I like to think of my paintings as windows to another time and place, a magical window through which one's mind may drift, a place that is good and right. I feel that too many of us have lost touch with the beautiful world that is around us. If I can share with people a dream that is pleasant, I feel that I have fulfilled a responsibility that I must share with my fellow man.

At an early age l made the commitment to dedicate my life to being an artist. My vision has become as tunnel vision —focusing on oil painting as the prime motive for living. like to create planes of texture and space configurations of brushwork that lend themselves to participation in the viewer's eye and mind — in such a way that suggestion, more than illustra-tion, creates the scene. I have often been delighted by others' observations of images I had not seen in a piece.

Though my work is basically spontaneous in nature and is conceived directly onto the can-vas, do constant research. I take long trips into the mountains. I wander hundreds of miles exploring back roads through the Rockies and across the plains, taking mental notes to be drawn upon later in the solitude of my studio. I like to spend time at polo matches and horse races, or when possible to go for long horseback rides out in the wilderness. I have found that being out there in that area with the surrounding mountains, harsh weather, and changing skies has had a definite influence on my work.