One Bobcat paints another for Montana State’s Student Wellness Center

BOZEMAN — Kelsey Dzintars wobbled 19 feet in the air, standing face to face with a bobcat’s piercing blue eyes. 

Breathing heavily through a respirator mask, the Montana State University alumna gripped a can of gold spray paint and began to outline the bobcat’s fur onto the southern wall of MSU’s Student Wellness Center. With a flick of her wrist, its tufted ears took shape amid frosty mountain peaks. And with the stroke of her paintbrush, students began racing a canoe down the bobcat’s mane.  

When Dzintars lowered herself to the ground from an electric lift a week later, the mural was complete. Conceptualized in 2024 and painted this summer, the piece displays the Student Wellness Center’s dedication to holistic wellness with a bit of “MSU flair,” she said.  

“Once I’m in the mode of painting and focusing on the artwork, everything else kind of falls away,” said Dzintars, who received a bachelor’s degree in graphic design from MSU’s School of Art in 2009.  

Dzintars is a Bozeman-based artist who specializes in murals, illustrations, fine art painting and tattoos for clients across Gallatin County from her studio in the Emerson Center for the Arts and Culture, just off Bozeman’s Main Street. She began Kelsey Dzintars Art and Design in 2015 while river guiding in Idaho, following five years as a creative director and senior designer for a marketing firm in Big Sky.  

Charting her own path to a sustainable business was a vulnerable experience, Dzintars said, like walking through the woods in the dark. She often struggled to balance the fast pace of commissions while keeping her “artistic fire alive,” but she found it rewarding to create accessible public art that continues to uplift Bozeman residents, such as a mural she painted on a parking garage downtown.

“It’s amazing when alumni invest their time and talents in Bozeman, making it a more vibrant place for students to explore,” said Betsy Asserson, MSU’s associate vice president of student wellness. “Kelsey’s mural for MSU truly illustrates the Student Wellness Center as a hub for wellbeing, adventure and community. We are so grateful she shared her talents with us.” 

Dzintars enrolled at MSU in 2005 from Rapid City, South Dakota, seeking a university with a reputation for art that fostered community between students of different majors. Industry field trips off campus were the highlight of her time in the program, she said, including touring Seattle design companies, shadowing ceramicists in Oaxaca, Mexico, and studying abroad for a semester in London. Her culminating experience was receiving the Richard Helzer Bronze Pencil Award during her senior year, presented to top students in the School of Art.  

She said she is often blown away by the intelligence of current MSU undergraduates and how they use technology to create innovative designs. Dzintars is one of many alumni who visit campus to provide critiques of student work and judge senior capstone presentations, which are given “Shark Tank”-style in MSU’s Procrastinator Theater.  

In 2014, she critiqued a graphic design student’s cookbook, a copy of which was sent to Dzintars with a thank-you note after the class. By 2022, the student was a creative business coach in New York City, and Dzintars attended her coaching program to help expand her design business, continuing the cycle of Bobcats helping one another.  

“It’s way easier for undergraduates to visualize success if they can see a pathway to it,” said Jeffrey Conger, professor of graphic design. “That’s why our alumni like Kelsey, who has such a wide variety of experience in all sorts of media, are so valuable in motivating the next generation of designers.” 

Conger, who taught many of Dzintars’ classes, said her artwork connects with people of all backgrounds and can embody a powerful narrative. Her style has a timeless quality, he added, like her prize-winning design celebrating MSU’s 125th anniversary in 2018, which was displayed on Main Street banners, the university president’s birthday cards and a local beer.   

This year, Dzintars said she is planning to complete additional mural commissions and seek new experiences, such as an artist residency she attended in July at a fire lookout in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. With each endeavor, she explores new facets of her passion.  

“I’ve just been following breadcrumbs of curiosity,” she said.