From Eric!

Eric recently completed an illustration for the Glenn Gould Foundation, to promote an event for the Glenn Gould Prize Celebration of Music Week. This beautiful piece was featured on a billboard at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in downtown Toronto.

Pat featured on creative crossing

This month Pat and his art are featured on the art and design website creative crossing. Check out what Pat has to say, as well as many other great features and articles.

Special thanks to Sven of creative crossing for his interest in Pat's work and creative message.

- Liz

Design work from Hyein (Camilo - Said the Whale)

Hyein recently completed some design work for the music video 'Camilo' from Said the Whale. For more information on the project and Hyein's involvement stop by Hyein's blog.




Fancy!

- Liz

Nothing but the truth.

We get many a question about the origin of the collective's name, and while it may not seem that exciting, it came down to one afternoon spent eating good food, drinking copious amount of tea, and embarrassing others with our ridiculous conversation.

That afternoon, two years ago, we had some time away from class and set out, very deliberately to come up with a name. It might seem like a bit of an artificial process, "What, no great inside joke? No reference to a crazy road trip?", but I think the method speaks volumes about us. We are a group of very different artists, with no unifying style or cause, but we all love to drink tea, eat delicious food, and make each other laugh.

In the spirit of that afternoon, here are some of the names that never were Not An Octagon:

OK-Jellyfish
Creepy Slow Dance
Quack Quack Fish
Strawberry Jellyfish (clearly we had a thing for jellyfish at the time)
No Babies, Please
Wasabi Seven
Pineapple-Fried Rice
Passable Behaviour
Jolly Yeti
Mostly Asian
Broken Octopus (getting closer?)
Skeptic-Eel
A Capella Roulette
Paper Brothel
Skeptical Jellyfish (again...)
Combo 52

What can I say. It was an interesting afternoon.

- Liz

2 Years!

Hi all,
This week was a big one for Not An Octagon, celebrating our second anniversary and wrapping up The Side Show. We all had a great time opening night and were so happy to have friends and fellow artists Irma and Greg included in the event as well.
Here are some images from the opening night:Hyein, Liz, Jack.

Wendy poses with her new food girls!

Friends and well-wishers taking it all in.

The artists: Eric, Hyein, Pat, Liz, Jack, Hieng, Greg, Wendy, and Jho (Irma was unable to attend the opening night, but her beautiful work was appreciated by many).


Some great news to end on: Eric Overton has joined Not An Octagon as our eighth member! We're all happy to have Eric on board and thankful for all the hard work and great ideas he has already contributed.

Two years in I'm thankful to be a part of this crazy group of artists, friends, and generous human beings. I can't wait to see what we do next...

- Liz

The Side Show!

We cordially invite you to The Side Show, a carnival themed art exhibition featuring brand new original paintings, mixed media and digital art of all things curious. Brought to you by good ol' us, Not An Octagon!

Here's the lineup of artists (click name for link):

Pat Butler
Wendy Ding
Greg Hill
Irma Kniivila
Hyein Lee
Eric Overton
Liz Pignataro
Jack Shepherd
Hieng Tang
Jhosephine Taniwidjaya

Admission: FREE
Dates: Oct 3 - Oct 10 '09 (opening night same as Nuit Blanche)
Location: 2ndHalf Gallery
Address: 250 Queen West, Toronto, ON M5V 1Z7

See y'all there!

- Not An Octagon

Fan Expo 2009

Hyein's table with a lovely drape

Wendy's table!

Wendy's merchandise: prints, magnets, buttons and graphic novels!

Zombies (they did not hurt us)

Nice girl who bought Wendy's Sushi Girl tiny print and put it in her wallet right away!

Hyein and Wendy had a fun weekend at Fan Expo 2009 with their neighboring sales tables! Meeting fans from anime, horror, gaming, sci-fi and comic books in Artist Alley never fails to be a good time.

Join us again next year!

Love,
Wendy