Westmont Magazine Vivid Artwork Celebrates Fish, Birds and the Outdoors
Casey Underwood ’14 never wanted to go to Westmont, where his grandparents and parents all attended college. Then art professor Scott Anderson, a family friend, gave him a tour of the new Adams Center for the Visual Arts. Impressed, Casey applied, received a scholarship and enrolled to study art. His sister, Amanda Underwood ’16, followed him, and he met his wife, Dana Bonsack Underwood ’14, at Westmont.
Casey grew up creating art. “When I was disgruntled, my mother gave me pen and paper to calm me down,” he says. “I presented art shows in my grandma’s driveway. My parents never tried to steer me away from that, and I’m grateful for them and my teachers in high school and college who supported my desire to be an artist.” He began drawing fish as a child, and he’s still doing that — and much more — as a full-time, successful artist.
A passion for detail helped Casey fall in love with printmaking, and he worked extensively in this medium and did a lot of painting at Westmont. In high school and college, he showed his work in Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. But the gallery scene seemed like a poor fit for him. After graduating, he spent three months traveling and fly fishing while Dana worked on her teaching credential. He took art supplies with him and created work on the road to show in Fort Collins, Colorado. This first fish-centric body of work made a hit at the gallery and on social media. He soon became one of the fly fishing industry’s main artists.
Lacking the kind of space and the printmaking equipment at Adams Center, Casey now focuses on digital illustrations and makes fine art prints from them. He launched his career from a tiny apartment in Seattle using a digital painting tablet. He and his wife settled in the city after she completed her credential. Dana taught at Bellevue Christian School while Casey worked on his art and delivered beer for a brewery. Some 18 months later, he quit the brewery.
Casey could work from anywhere, so the couple took a road trip to explore various college towns. Dana loved Bozeman, Montana, and landed a teaching job there, so they moved there in 2018. Casey developed a love for the outdoors when his family vacationed in Colorado, Wyoming and the Sierra. “I learned to fly fish in the eastern Sierra,” Casey says. “Whenever I was in Montana, I was giddy. I don’t think we’ll leave.”
His prolific artwork features vibrant, detailed illustrations of more than 100 species of fish and birds and outdoor scenes. “While everything started with fish, I decided to expand to waterfowl, upland birds and hunting to become an outdoor wildlife artist and not just a fish artist,” Casey says. “Hunting, fishing and art-making are all process oriented-activities, which is what I truly love about them. I’ll keep my art on brand though: no butterflies.”
Casey seeks to get artwork onto people’s walls, and he prices his work accordingly. “The vast majority of people — especially young people — have way too much space on their walls,” he says. He sells four-by-six-inch prints for $15 and larger, 16-by-24-inch prints for $100. “My business model is being accessi-
ble and affordable,” he says. “I’m a stickler for quality and use good paper and simple, high-quality wooden frames.” He also sells beautiful, vivid decals of fish and birds.
Mostly, Casey provides artwork for outdoor brands such as Sage, which makes fly fishing rods, and Filson, which markets quality canvas goods. This work led him to other companies, and he illustrates regularly for repeat customers who share his aesthetics. Each year, he designs graphics for new collections of apparel, such as hats and shirts, and for outdoor products such as knives and fishing reels. He sells his art to brands instead of licensing it.
In the past year, he hired a part-time employee to help with shipping so he can focus entirely on creating art. He uses the Shopify e-commerce platform and built the website himself: caseyunderwood.com. He shares his work on Instagram: @cpunderwood.
He’s happy he went to Westmont. “Students at Westmont have something they’ll never expe- rience again,” he says. “I made a group of friends I’m still extremely close with, just like my parents did. Professors Scott Anderson, Nathan Huff and Sue Savage invested in me. I always wanted to be in the art building and spent more time there than anywhere else on campus. I’d love to come and talk to senior art majors someday.”
The extended Underwood clan includes grandparents Jim ’64 and Linda Mittendorf ’65 Underwood, parents Dan ’88 and Deedee Mahn ’88 Underwood, sister Amanda Underwood ’16, uncle and aunt Don ’89 and Macy Shapiro ’91 Underwood and cousins Cody ’17 and Tomi Ryba ’17 Underwood.