Denim, Beaded Jacket belonging to Earl Biss

Gifted to a friend over lunch at the Woody Creek Tavern in Aspen, Colorado at which time she introduced Earl Biss to Hunter S. Thompson, a well-known author.  Thompson commented to Biss "If you will teach me to paint, I will teach you to write."

To the jacket's basic canvas Biss added rows of multicolor glass seed beads stitched over the French seams on the jacket front and pocket flaps.  A banded pattern of cobalt blue, ruby red, sunset orange, lemon yellow, black and faceted fumed copper provide a Southwestern hued paltette with the copper-faced buttons and rivets securing and reinforcing the garment throughout.

Because he wore the collar open, lapel style, the four golden stars he attached to either side of the neck opening, are clipped on with prongs.  There is one on each collar point and three on the inside space between the top button and second one down.  He was careful to place the stars so that rivet button back and corresponding button hole would disappear.

Earl Biss was born in Washington state in 1947. He was raised by his grandmother on the Crow reservation in Montana. Biss was awarded two scholarships to pursue his education. One was from the Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe where he studied under the guidance of Fritz Scholder. The other was from the San Francisco Art Institute from which he graduated in 1971.

Showings of his work have taken place at the Riverside Museum in New York City; the Museum of New Mexico in Santa Fe; the U.S. Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C.; the Cuyahoga Valley Art Center Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio; the Washington State Pavillion at the 1970 World’s Fair in Osala, Japan; the San Jose Museum of Fine Arts in California and the Warehouse Gallery in Yakima, Washington.

A painterly artist, Earl Biss’ compositions often begin with a realistic investigation of Indian camp rivalries, midnight raids, the hunt and also the severe winters in the Big Horn Mountains in the vicinity of Yellowstone. 

Mr. Biss died while painting in his studio in 1998.