Article by Hannah Olson

Photos by Lovely Hitchcock

In Billings, art doesn’t only live inside galleries. Sometimes it stretches across the side of a downtown building, appears in the warm grain of a hand-burned wood panel, or transforms a storefront window into a winter scene during the holidays. Much of that work belongs to artist Rilie Tané Zumbrennen, whose growing body of work is reshaping the region's visual character. 

Based in Billings, Zumbrennen has built a growing career as a muralist and pyrography artist whose work reflects the wildlife, landscapes, and stories of the American West. Her art can be found on buildings, in galleries, and in public spaces across Montana and beyond, but the journey that brought her there was anything but straightforward. 

Behind the murals and intricate wood burnings is a story about finding yourself, taking risks, and learning that sometimes the most meaningful paths are the ones you never planned. 

A Creative Spirit from the Start 

Zumbrennen has been back in Billings for more than a decade, a place that is both home and the canvas for many of her most recognizable murals. Her connection to art began early, shaped by a family where creativity was always part of daily life. Her mother, Joey Joseph of Pompey’s Pillar, is an artist herself who continues to paint and sing, and that creative influence left a lasting impression. 

“I’ve drawn since I can remember, just pencil and paper,” Zumbrennen says. “My mom was super creative, her mom was super creative, so I was always growing up around drawing and crafts.” 

She spent her early years in the Huntley Project area and later graduated from Skyview High School in Billings, carrying that artistic curiosity with her through school by enrolling in every art class she could. Still, like many young people, she wasn’t entirely sure what direction her life would take. 

Her early adult years included attending beauty school and spending a season living in Colorado with her husband, where the two enjoyed snowboarding and mountain life. But those years also came with challenges that would ultimately shape the direction of her life. 

Zumbrennen has spoken openly about a period earlier in adulthood when she and her husband struggled with addiction. That chapter of their lives, she says, eventually led them to make significant changes and seek a different path. The turning point came when they discovered they were expecting their daughter. 

Motherhood forced a shift in priorities and gave her a renewed sense of purpose. The couple returned to Montana and settled in Billings, determined to build a healthier and more stable life. “If I wouldn’t have had my daughter,” she says, reflecting on that time, “I probably wouldn’t have gotten out of it. It forced me to be sober.” 

Those early years of motherhood became a time of rebuilding and rediscovery. During the day she worked, and at night, after her daughter was asleep, she began painting again. Those quiet hours slowly reconnected her to the creative spark she had carried since childhood. 

Creating Yourself Along the Way 

Once back in Billings, Zumbrennen worked in payroll for several years before deciding to pursue higher education. She enrolled at Montana State University Billings with plans to become a classroom teacher. 

Even then, art continued to follow her. “My husband was like, ‘Why don’t you just be an art teacher?’” she recalls. “Because on the side I was always doing commissions, drawing people’s pets or painting something for $25 or $50.” 

His encouragement helped push her toward a path that allowed creativity to remain part of her life. That support eventually led her to a position teaching art to kindergarten through eighth-grade students at Elysian School, where she spent three years helping young people explore creativity and expression. For Zumbrennen, teaching was meaningful work, but something else was unfolding at the same time. 

The Mural That Changed Everything 

While teaching, Zumbrennen continued pursuing artistic opportunities outside the classroom. During the summer of her second year as an art teacher, she applied for a public mural project in downtown Billings. The design featured a large buffalo and was intended to add vibrancy to the Historic Grand Building, most famous for housing Jake’s Downtown. 

“I just always applied for opportunities,” she says. “I didn’t think it would happen.” When she received the call that she had been selected, the opportunity quickly proved transformative. 

The mural drew attention from local media and the community, and soon her name began circulating among businesses and organizations interested in commissioning new work. As projects and bookings increased, Zumbrennen faced a difficult decision: continue teaching or take a risk on the life she was beginning to imagine as an artist. “It was scary because I wondered if I would make enough money,” she says. 

Once again, her husband encouraged her to take the leap. “He said, ‘Just do it. I’ll carry us.’ So, I did it.” Nearly four years later, she continues to build her career as a full-time artist, proof that sometimes the biggest leaps require betting on yourself and having someone beside you who believes you can soar. 

Murals, Woodburning, & Western Stories 

Murals now make up the majority of Zumbrennen’s professional work. She travels throughout Montana and the surrounding region, creating both indoor and outdoor murals for cities, businesses, and private clients. Many of the projects celebrate wildlife, landscapes, and western heritage, themes that have long inspired her creative process. “Mostly murals, indoor and outdoor,” she explains of her current workload. 

Her work can be found throughout Billings and beyond. Some of her projects include a collaborative mural at the MetraPark fairgrounds fence, the wild horses mural at Montana Liquor, created with artist Ruby Hahn, and several historic sign restorations downtown, including the well-known Coca-Cola sign near Stella’s. She has also completed murals inside local businesses, including NAI Real Estate and LaVie Women’s Healthcare. 

Upcoming projects continue to expand her reach across the region. She has planned work at the Stillwater County Museum in Columbus, murals at Pompeys Pillar, and a project along a trail system in Cody. One particularly meaningful mural will take her to Fort Benton, a place with personal ties for Zumbrennen, where her grandparents and great-grandparents are from. There she is creating a mural honoring the Fort Shaw girls’ basketball team that won the national championship in 1921. In the coming months, she will also complete an eight-panel painting that will be installed in the Yellowstone Gift Shop in Cody, Wyoming. 

Each project brings new challenges and opportunities, from working with local committees and grant programs to operating specialized equipment and adapting her work to different surfaces and spaces. “Every project teaches me something,” she says. 

Alongside her murals, Zumbrennen maintains a strong connection to pyrography, the art of wood burning. Using specialized tools, she burns detailed imagery into wood panels, often adding subtle paint accents to enhance the piece's depth. The warm tones and intricate detail of pyrography create a natural connection to the landscapes and wildlife that inspire her. She also creates hand-burned western hats, custom pieces that combine traditional craftsmanship with contemporary design. 

Art in Everyday Spaces 

Part of what makes Zumbrennen’s work distinctive is the way it appears in unexpected places. In addition to murals, pyrography, and hats, she creates snow-spray window art during the holiday season, decorating storefront windows with festive scenes that bring a sense of whimsy to the winter months. 

These temporary works highlight another aspect of her artistic philosophy, the idea that art does not have to exist only inside galleries to have meaning. Instead, it can live in public spaces and everyday settings where people encounter it naturally. 

A Journey Still Unfolding 

Even as her career grows, Zumbrennen says she still sees her artistic path as an ongoing journey. “I still don’t know totally what my favorite thing is,” she says. “And I think that’s okay. I’m still figuring it out.” 

That perspective reflects the way she now approaches both life and creativity, with gratitude for every step that brought her here. The challenges she faced earlier in life, the risks she has taken, the support of her husband, and the inspiration she finds in motherhood have all shaped the artist she is today. She encourages others to embrace that same willingness to explore and evolve. 

“You should always follow your dreams and do what you really want to do,” she says. “If you don’t like what you’re doing, go find something you do enjoy. Eventually, it will probably lead to what you want to do.” 

For Zumbrennen, that journey continues to unfold through each mural, each wood-burned piece, and each new opportunity to share art with the community. As more of her work appears across Montana and beyond, her story is becoming part of the creative fabric of the region, one wall and one artwork at a time. 

Originally printed in the May 2026 issue of Simply Local Magazine

Never miss an issue, check out SLM's digital editions here!  

related articles: