There’s a coherency to Ted Feighan’s creative voice. Whether it’s his visual art or music project, the inspiration is clear: tropical landscapes, flora and fauna, and exotic motifs. With his art, he focuses on paper collages, made of found paper and featuring tropical themes. With his music project, Monster Rally, he delivers a fresh concoction of sample-based exotica, tropicalia and hip hop.
“I feel the most inspired by music,” shared Feighan in an interview with the Urban Outfitters blog. “I’m a huge fan of Brian Wilson, his music from the mid 60s-early 70s is incredible. I’m also into tapestries and weavings from central and South America, that’s been inspiring a lot of my color and design lately.”
His aim with his work (whatever the medium) is to create a certain vibe—transporting the viewer or listener to another place altogether. “I always want to try and take people out of their current space or mindset and put them somewhere new,” he explains. “I want my work to feel familiar, but fresh and a bit strange. When I started making this artwork I used to say that I was trying to create a world that I would like to live in.”
His tip to other aspiring creatives? Keep working. “Don’t let yourself get down or stressed about too much in your work, if you have ideas keep trying to make them happen,” he stresses. “The biggest lesson I think I’ve learned is just to trust my own ideas and concepts and to work as hard as I can to execute them. It’s easy to get caught up in what everyone else is doing and it’s always important to remember to come back to your own concepts.”
Below you’ll find examples of his tropical collage work.
