Jeff Kilpatrick - Sketches of Fishtown

I met Jeff Kilpatrick through my friend Concetta on our first trip to Philadelphia and we always hang out whenever we visit. Jeff is the kinda person you want to know when you're visiting a big city - a through-and-through local who always has a million stories to tell. He's also one of the nicest dudes you could ever meet and man, he cooks one hell of a meal.

Jeff is a working cartoonist, teacher and founder of the Philly Cartoonist Society. His artwork is awesome. He's got that real-deal, old-school thing going on. A real drawer. For the past couple of years he's been working on a series of drawings inspired by his neighbourhood called Sketches of Fishtown:
Apart from being fantastically touching little tributes to Fishtown in their own right, what really blows my mind is that Jeff has 95 of these under his belt. 95! The whole project is a funny, poignant and heartfelt document of a fascinating corner of the city. The first 50 or so are available in a book, click here for a little info from Jeff about picking up a copy or two. A second volume is in the works.

Creature Double Feature

If you happen to be on the streets of Philadelphia first-Fridaying tomorrow night, please make a stop at Brave New Worlds to catch Creature Double Feature, a show curated by my friend Concetta.

A bunch of artists (myself included) have been asked to give their interpretation of the word 'creature' for the show. The results are being nailed to the wall as I type, and as far as I can imagine, look awesome. If you can make it along, I'd strongly recommend it because I've heard there are some amazing artists involved.

The show will run through November with the opening party on Friday 6th November from 6-9pm at Brave New Worlds, 45 N. 2nd Street.

Love

After 2 weeks in Philadelphia, with a little stay in New York (Philly's better), that's me home and jet-lag free. How are you?

Me? I'm feeling pretty good. On top of an unbelievable holiday, I asked Alex, my beautiful girlfriend, to marry me and she said yes! She wasn't even drunk!

Being a tough guy, I won't get all sappy on here. I'd just like to say thanks on behalf of Alex (my beautiful fiancée) and myself to everyone for their messages of congratulations, their cards and their gifts. We're planning a party sometime soon and we're having a lot of fun talking about 'What Happens Next...'.

I must also give some extra special thanks to Concetta for being an unbelievable host and friend while we were away.

We are very happy :)

On Holiday

back soon.

May / June News

Here's a belated post about what's going on right this second, and over the next few weeks. Oh, and this site should be getting updated a fair bit soon:

JAGGY NETTLES
My show, Jaggy Nettles, is still up at Amble in Philadelphia. I'm back in Scotland now, but the exhibition will be on until the 8th of June, so go and have a look if you can. I'll try to post about the trip in detail soon, but thumbs up to Concetta, Fergi, Lindsy & Becky for their help and for rocking. The above picture is from the show. There's a wee post about it on myloveforyou... cheers Meighan.

LE WEEKEND
Stirling's weird little music festival, Le Weekend, is on this weekend (Fri 23rd - Sun 25th May). Get some tickets if you're in town because it's always worth a look. There's usually a lot of strange world music and people shouting into pianos. Friday night looks like the most fun with Victoria Bergsman from Taken By Trees/The Concretes/that Young Folks song playing amongst others.

FROM LOVE COMES PAINE
I'm sketchy on the dates and details but it's worth mentioning this as soon as possible - for Amble's next show they're teaming up with Exit skateshop to put on a show of skateboards painted by a bunch of different artists. The rumours of who might be exhibiting are pretty exciting (I'm in it too!). It's all in support of funding Paine's Park, which will be a massive new skateable square kinda thing in Philadelphia since things got all pissy about Love Park. Check out fromlovecomespaine.com for details and for one of the best looking websites going.

MAC ATTACK
My iMac died... again! It looks like the same problem, so hopefully I can get it repaired and useable without shelling out more money. I've ordered a fancy new one anyway though because I can't risk one I do work on buggering things up any more. This is the reason for the lack of posting / pictures / photos.

Hanging Jaggy Nettles

That's all the drawing done and we're just getting it fired up on the walls the now. Well actually the above photo is from yesterday, right now we're having a little break after getting one wall nailed up:
See? It's hot as hell here too and we can't stop eating. Remember if anyone is about tomorrow night (Thursday) in Philadelphia, head to Amble for the show and free beer and stuff. Info is in earlier posts. Back to work we go!

A Man On Holiday

I've been getting all touristy. It's Monday morning now, four days to the show. Better get my finger out.