Sam Octigan

experimenting

Sam — Sun, 13 May 2012 10:57:49 +0000

acrylic on paper

click for a closer look

Brian Lichtenberg x Iggy Azalea

Sam — Fri, 04 May 2012 14:11:40 +0000

acrylic on paper

I’m a big fan of designer Brian Lichtenberg and the wild outfits he creates for cool girls like Yelle, Rye Rye, M.I.A and rapper Iggy Azalea. When a photo of her styled in BL’s threads, taken by Brooke Nipar came up on my Tumblr feed, I was inspired to paint this piece up quickly. Love working with these types of colors and patterns.

The Octigang

Sam — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 07:55:52 +0000

So the Hyper Reality Dimension XX group show went down at aMBUSH Gallery in Sydney just over a week ago. Artists were asked to submit work based on their childhood memories of late 80′s/early 90′s cartoon/film/video game/comic characters and to try and come up with work in a slightly different format. Below is my submission ‘The Octigang’, a tribute to some of my personal favorites from Saturday mornings spent glued to the TV screen. With a big nod to the best collectable sticker series ever, The Garbage Gang (Garbage Pail Kids in North America!). Those of you down with collector cards of that era should remember swapping spares in order to make up the large picture on the flip side of the cards. Hence my piece being split and framed in 4 parts.

‘The Octigang’ gouache on paper 2012

Big thanks to Jonathan Verzosa and the guys at aMBUSH Gallery for having me on board. Jon had a real vision for this show and really pulled it off, I wasn’t able to make the trip to Sydney for the opening, but judging from photos of the event it was a wild success. You can view a list of the pieces for sale here. Photos of the event over at Strobed.

Eness

Sam — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 04:38:39 +0000

Eness is a highly interactive, award winning art and design practice based in Melbourne, Australia. When I had just finished high school and was interested in animation and multimedia, I was put in touch with them to spend a days work experience checking out what they did and how they did it. While over time it became apparent that multimedia design/programming wasn’t where I would end up with my work, the brief time I spent in the Eness studio has always stayed with me as an example of not placing any limits or boundaries on your ideas or creativity, while still remaining viable and relevant in a commercial space. As an artist that works in both the fine art and commercial art worlds, that is constantly striving to produce the best work possible and that enjoys collaborating with all kinds of different people, this is something that is very important to me. Thanks in part to that short visit years ago as an impressionable teen.

Do yourself a favor and have a look at the work of Eness, it really is extraordinary.

Mike D x Sam Octigan x Nick Woj

Sam — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 22:14:31 +0000

Cool process video of my work, put together by Mike D of Acclaim Magazine featuring music by Nick Woj of Cold World. Really cool seeing this come together and great to collaborate with these guys. Be sure to check out their other projects and read some questions I answered for Acclaim here.

Mixtape NYC Edition

Sam — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 09:50:00 +0000

New mixtape with a New York theme. Featuring artists that are from NYC or important to it’s history, artists I caught live while I was there or just tracks that got a lot of play on the Ipod while I was making my way around the city. Download it here.

NYC San Francisco 2012

Sam — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 10:16:23 +0000

So earlier this week I arrived back in Melbourne after a month long working holiday in New York City and San Francisco. It was my first trip to the states and I had a great time. Caught up with old friends, made new ones, saw some good shows, took in as many galleries and museums as I could handle and of course filled a lot of sketchbook pages with studies, notes and mock ups for projects that will take up the better part of the year. Inspired.

Unfortunately my camera died in NYC so I didn’t take any snaps of San Fran, but keep an eye on here and my Tumblr for bits and pieces concerning my trip. I’ll also be posting up another mixtape in a (New York) minute, this one with a big apple theme. Peace!

Hyper Reality Dimension XX

Sam — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 20:06:51 +0000

Hello, from San Francisco!

Very happy to be a part of a great group show happening at Sydney’s aMBUSH Gallery later this month. If you’re in the area be sure to check it out. Stay tuned as I’ll post my submitted piece closer to the date. Facebook event page here.

Alaska

Sam — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 04:20:39 +0000

‘Alaska’

acrylic on paper

Click the image for a closer look.

might as well live

Sam — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 03:56:52 +0000

“might as well live”

pencil on paper 2012

An illustration inspired by the film ‘Girl Interrupted’ and Angelina Jolie’s character, Lisa Rowe. Hard to believe it came out in 1999. Colored pencil on paper, click the image for a closer look.