By Ellie Boeschenstein, Explore Big Sky
Artist and muralist Casey Lutz has created a new feel on the side of the Wildlands building wall in Bozeman’s Northeast Neighborhood. The piece is a representation of the rugged spirit of the American West and his work as a whole is thoughtful, yet can also be abstract at times, and shows precision and detail as well as raw expression.
Lutz’s artistic journey began at a young age when he got into graffiti art. Doing spray paint tags soon evolved into Lutz’s dad letting him paint his childhood bedroom, when he was 16, which would count as his first-ever mural.
“I painted a Bob Marley mural in my bedroom that my dad still has up today,” Lutz said. “So that’s always really funny to go home and be like, oh, that’s where it all started.”
For a while, Lutz continued his art as a side gig. He studied graphic design at Montana State University but it wasn’t until after graduating and a year working for K2 Sports and Red Bull in Seattle, that he decided to return to Montana and dive into his art career full time.
“There was another mural artist that I just loved his style and his work,” Lutz noted. “I was like, man, his stuff is very similar to what I like to draw and he’s getting paid tons of money to paint these things on buildings so I was like, why am I not doing this? So I just kind of put it out there that I wanted to paint murals.”
Lutz mentioned how ever since he put the word out that he wanted to paint murals, his work has been stacking up ever since.
“I kind of laughed. I was like, once you tell people that you’re a mural artist, you better watch out because the murals come in and you just keep getting them over and over and over,” Lutz said.
Photo Courtesy of Casey Lutz