Red Bull Mural by FERAL & Her STREET ART Insight

Curated By Big Spin Creative

Who Is Feral?

Emily Ferrell (Feral) is an art major at Appalachian State University from Durham, NC. She has a very unique style and loves to create street art at local spots. When we asked her if she wanted to collaborate with us to inspire artists around the campus to start using the expression tunnel she was more than willing. Feral even mentioned that an expression tunnel at NC State was one of her key motivators for becoming an artist. She quoted “One day during my freshman year, my friend suggested that I just paint her face using spray paint on the Free Expression Tunnel there. (It is a tunnel much like the two at Appalachian, but has a large flat wall next to it that anybody can paint on freely.) I took her joke quite literally, and after 7 hours and 4 cans of low quality lowes spray paint, I had fallen in love with the medium and process.”

"Artists have the ability to make you feel. Artists have the ability to create beauty, emotion, and artists overall have a way of communicating to viewers and audiences in a way that cannot be put into words." - Feral

Flash forward four years later and Feral is now a senior, majoring in studio art at Appalachian State and currently working on numerous public murals. She has a new piece up of Tupac Shakur in Chinatown in San Francisco that she completed in September of 2016 and she's currently working on an ongoing mural of a memorial of legendary skateboarders for the local skate spot in Boone (known as “DIY Skatepark.”) After college, Feral hopes to be an apprentice and become a working tattoo artist, and eventually find residency with a mural company or street artist to make enough money to live off of her artwork. For this collaboration between Ferrell and Big Spin Creative, Red Bull supported the idea with product and the inspirational idea of her painting a bull above the tunnel with the words “Red Bull” around the sides. Feral did an awesome job, and many people around campus walked by and supported the cause. We hope this inspired some artists in the community to get out and express themselves in the Appalachian State tunnels, and also to help support local artists like Feral.

What are some of your favorite street artists?

-I really love David Choe and his variety of medium and mark-making, as well as a more recent find, the artist 'Vhils', or Alexandre Manuel Dias Farto.

What's your favorite thing to paint or draw?

-I have always been drawn to faces and expressions. Something about the human gaze and connection through emotion and facial expression really has been the driving force in most of my work from the very beginning. I also love drawing/painting animals and wildlife as well, as Zoology is another major passion of mine.

What makes your art unique?

-My work is unique in many ways, but I think that my usage of color, and of texture of my faces is different than other street artists. There aren't a lot of exclusively "portrait" street artists around especially in this area, so my subject matter and the way that I manipulate the paint is primarily what makes my work unique.

What role do artists play in society?

-Artists have the ability to make you feel. Artists have the ability to create beauty, emotion, and artists overall have a way of communicating to viewers and audiences in a way that cannot be put into words. This is very valuable in a society that can sometimes be so rigid and dark.

Reach Out & Show Support: @emferal