Portside is honored to welcome comic artist Jeffro Kilpatrick to Cherry Street Pier as our November Artist in Residence! Jeffro is a Fishtown dude through and through, born and raised, and his illustrative work is reflective of his Philadelphia upbringing, and of his life experiences. Jeff creates artwork about the things that are important to him, and has touched on themes such as love, loss, music, and the city that he calls home. The autobiographical nature of his work is what makes it special, and viewers of his work are able to obtain an accurate sense of Jeffro’s vibrant personality.
One thing he is passionate about is of course his lovely wife, Joannie, of whom he has an adorable and expansive collection of artwork dedicated to. “Instead of sending her flowers and stuff, I would send her mail art when we first started dating.” Another passion evident in his work is music. A favorite musician of Jeffro’s, Tom Waits, even became his pen pal at one point after Jeffro sent him some fan art. Waits showed his appreciation with a jar of tomato sauce that he sent to Jeffro for Christmas!
Jeffro is a staple in not just the Portside community where he’s been volunteering and teaching art off and on since 2008, but also in the Fishtown/Kensington neighborhood. Anyone who is familiar with Fishtown has seen his remarkable mural at Frankford & Dauphin Streets. The mural depicts images of local artists, craftsmen, and community members from Fishtown and Kensington’s past and present. Who better to create such a mural than Fishtown’s very own Jeffro?! 
In addition to volunteering and teaching at Portside Arts Center, Jeffro has also taught for many years at UArts and Memphis Street Academy in Philadelphia. He co-founded the Philadelphia Cartoonist Society in 1997 and is a longtime member of the Meathaus Comics Collective. In 2015, Jeffro won a SEED grant (Supporting Entrepreneurship in Education), an annual event presented by PhillyCORE Leaders for his Philly Artrepreneurs program.
Join us this Saturday, November 14th for Jeffro’s Second Saturday Show in Studio #12 at Cherry Street Pier. The exhibition will feature original drawings, prints, and comic books of Jeffro's, and will be up throughout the month of November. A percentage of all art sales will benefit the scholarship fund at the Portside Arts Center. Check out his work for sale in Portside’s Online Art Gallery.
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