Come join several L7 ladies at the 4th Annual Art Boutique.

4901 - 11th Avenue South, Minneapolis MN
Saturday, November 6 from 10 am to 5 pm

Come start your Christmas shopping early with a wide variety of paintings, photography, jewelry, totes, purses, and frankensweaters!

Third Annual Firehouse Show!

Please join us for the

The Third Annual L7 Firehouse Art Exhibit and Party
One Night Only!
Saturday, October 9, 6-9 pm
134 East 9th Street
Downtown St. Paul

Come see us at the Birchwood!

L7 has a group show at the Birchwood Cafe in Minneapolis, now through August 8. Come and see what we've been up to!

2009 in Review: An L7 Odyssey...

Before we get too far into 2010, we want to reflect on where 2009 took/brought us, and how we have grown as artists and as a collective. This was our first year beyond the WARM Mentorship Program and we believe it rocked. So, here are some highlights from the top:

January saw us ending some things. We all took our work down from the “WARM Women Make History” exhibit at the Hennepin History Museum; and Savita and Kari wrapped up their Women's Building show.

Claudia took a weekend workshop in Encaustics from Jeff Hirst.

Jean had a solo show at Blue Moon while Kat displayed at Parkway Arts Gallery.

Julia got word that she won a Jerome Foundation grant for Intermedia Art’s “Naked Stages” program, but that because funding was in such dire straits the program would not begin until June.

February

Jean hung a solo show at Dunn Bros North Loop.

Kari took painting classes with Donna Bruni.

Kat exhibited in the bird x bird show at the Northrup King Building.

Claudia had a Solo Show at Institute for Health and Healing.

March

Savita showed at the Blooma Yoga Studio.

Jean continued her Dunn Bros. Tour with a solo show at the Dunn Bros at the Minneapolis Library.

WARM Mentor Program committee meetings commence - Kari, Kat, Cami and Jean serve on the committee.

Kat showed at Fireroast Mountain Coffee & Tillie's Bean, And brought our new friend MAX into the world on 3/31!

Claudia participated in “WARM Chronicles”, a Juried Group Show at the Minneapolis Foundation, and “Arts in Harmony”, a National Juried Show in Elk River, MN.

April

Savita, Jean and Cami group show at Dunn Brothers Edina.

Kat participated in Articulture.

Claudia participated and was featured in Studio Visit Magazine, volume 5, a juried selection of international visual artists by the Open Studios Press.

May

Women's Art Institute - 3 of us (Kat, Savita & Julia) attended (so did WARM Mentor Karen Searle!)

Savita showed at Chakra Khan Acupuncture Studio.

Claudia and Kari did “Art-A-Whirl” in NE Minneapolis.

Kari was quite busy this month…”6X6X2009”, at the Rochester Contemporary Art Center, NY (3 pieces from "Urban Earth"), Art-A-Whirl, 6 X 6 works at the Bottling House (acrylics) "Playing with Blocks" show at Dabble (mixed media and collage)

Kat was selected to show work for the Minneapolis Foundation WARM Member Juried Exhibit and became a member of the League of Longfellow Artists (LOLA) participating in their Art Crawl.

June

Jean took a trip to Colorado for a printmaking class.

Julia’s Naked Stages program begins at Pillsbury House Theater.

July

Savita showed at Deb Shulman's Acupuncture Studio;

Claudia was part of Northern Clay Center’s “Studio Artists Exhibition”, from July through August in Minneapolis.

August what? Nothing in August?

September

Claudia delivered a commission for three überpods in September.

Julia moved out of her apartment downtown back to South Minneapolis to be closer to the theater.

Kat hung a show at the Nokomis Beach Coffee Shop.

October

The Second Annual L-7 St. Paul Firehouse One Night Show, during the Saint Paul Art Crawl, but not officially a part of it…

Jean took another trip to Colorado for another Printmaking class.

November-

Umber Studios show "7x7"

Savita had a small works show at the Chait Gallery.

Jean was involved in a Fall Fine Arts Show at Grain Belt Building and an Art Boutique

December

Claudia was in the Minnesota Women Ceramic Artists Exhibition/Juried Show in Minneapolis.

Kari had a Small Works exhibit at the Chait Galleries Downtown, Iowa City, IA (mixed media, "Urban Earth").

Kat's activities included Art & Soul, Edina Art Center, "Craft-A-Thon" at Craft-A-Rama, Midtown Global Market, MOQ (Mpls Observer Quarterly) Cover Art

---------------------------

Extras:

Kari completed her goal of 1 photo a day for 365 days and completed 60 blog entries.

Cami started work on the Wienerdogs project.

Kari Maxwell

Kari's website

Kari's Artist Statement:

It started with play. For me, it ends with play too. As a painter, I had completed a large body of work for an exhibit in January of 2008. In an effort to both rest and also feed my need to keep creating, I started collaging. I viewed this as a temporary exercise eventually leading me to a future body of work. What began as a playful, meditative exercise is now an integral part of my daily life. I make an effort to create everyday. Currently, my work seems to be ALL over the board. One might call it random but I choose to call it related (and I may or may not find out how this is the case - ever). Exercising my freedom to create is who I am. Expressing gratitude for creative inspiration is what I do. I started out a beginner and found out I am always a beginner (at everything) and hope to keep it that way. With this mentality, joy visits me everyday. Once I choose to produce, joy is squelched and the true being of who I am in unable to create it's voice. Being able to create has taught me that soul is so much more important than agenda, and joy can be discovered through truth.

Kari is represented by galleries in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Montana. For more information about upcoming events and other work, please contact Kari at karimaxwell@mac.com

Julia Babb

Julia's website


Julia's Artist Statement:

I am on a search and create mission! I have been exploring and working in the artistic forms of movement, calligraphy, and photography. My abstract photographic work centers on layering the reflective, distorting, and transparent qualities of glass and light. My Physicalligraphy concept involves making very large, "me-sized" letters (holding a very large sponge in my hands as the 'nib', I am then the 'pen') to much smaller letters, layered over one another, or aligned so that the meaning of the text changes or becomes, in fact, meaningless. I have also discovered that there is a corollary grace in the movement of making large letters to the movements of Tai Chi, and I want to move in such a way that also suggests that I myself am calligraphic—an ink mark on the world, a message in my own right.
I enjoy finding ways to pull photography off the wall, getting it out into the middle of the room where it can be engaged with, both physically and conceptually. I am pushing movement by combining it with these historically more static forms, and pushing both photography and calligraphy by blurring the distinction between text and images. I am pushing all three forms by finding ways to digitize them. I just discovered Chroma Key paint for instance with its videographic capacity to provide a ground for embedded images. I am curious if it works while wet, and how that might change the appearance of the letters or images. I also want to use conductive fabric, to which LEDs can be sewn in letter shapes, and then messages or meaning can be controlled remotely.
I am currently investigating questions regarding the left brain/right brain dichotomy, the movement and growth of language, living the question of dualism while inhabiting the middle, spiritual healing, paradoxical thinking, and change. At the moment, I am reading three books which are representative of the directions I am taking in my work and in my development as an artist: Pema Chodron's Comfortable With Uncertainty, in which she proposes that we align ourselves with change instead of resisting it; Stuart Heller's The Dance of Becoming: Living Life as a Martial Art, which explores movement as a path to wholeness; and Derm Barrett's The Paradox Process, a book that addresses creative problem solving through oppositional, juxtapositional and integrational thinking.

Contact Julia at juba423@gmail.com

Kat Corrigan

Kat's website


Kat's Artist Statement:

I am very interested in contrast lately, and in the difficulty of painting the spaces between spaces. My paintings are a means of communication, my attempts at revealing my view of the world to other people so there can be a measure of understanding between us. There is a clear truth in animals that I have always preferred over human conversation. I can often be naive about social structures, preferring the clear and open dialogue to the confusion and doublespeak of most media transmissions.
I love painting the edges of things- trees, telephone poles, dog's back legs.... I use these every day visuals as my means of expression. My paintings are very sculptural; I am using color more boldly and am able to define something in the forms that I struggled with in the past. I greatly enjoy the intensity of the colors set against the black canvas, the vibrancy of the common-place.

Contact Kat at katjojo@hotmail.com