CHICAGO — "Star Wars" fans might want to check out Lula Cafe.
The Logan Square restaurant/coffee house recently debuted a series of drawings by Auburn Gresham artist Katara Mallory. Over the past eight years, Mallory has made drawings based on stills from the "Star Wars" trilogy. That includes drawings of Princess Leia, the Millennium Falcon, Luke Skywalker and a host of other "Star Wars" characters and focal points.
The drawings are for sale for $250 each, and of the 13 currently being shown at Lula Cafe, six have been bought, according to curator Marianne Fairbanks.
"With Katara, you see the work, and you notice it's compelling, even if you're not a 'Star Wars' fan," Fairbanks said.
Mallory's work is being paired works by his mentor, Leslie Baum, who teaches at the Nathan and Kiyoko Lerner Foundation — where people with mental illnesses explore and develop creative visions, according to a news release. Baum's work at Lula Cafe is described as "space through flat colors and shapes ... which become 3-dimensional paintings or pop-up table top drawings."
It is wonderful to be paired with Katara. I have been a fan of his drawings for a very long time," said Baum, of Logan Square. "People love his drawings because they are simply great, interesting as drawings, full of personality and passion, and they have a beautiful hand-madeness to them. People also deeply love 'Star Wars.'"
The art will be shown at Lula Cafe through Oct. 20. Lula Cafe switches the art in its gallery four times a year, Fairbanks said.
"We’re very interested in showing high-quality, gallery-level art at Lula," Fairbanks said. "We treat it like a gallery space. For us it was really fun to show Katara’s work."
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