Bridgeport Coffeehouse is located at 3101 S. Morgan St. Pilkington has built a fine cultural addition to the neighborhood, and through Bridgeport Coffee's wholesale business (they roast and blend their own beans daily) he adds to the flavor of Chicago. Stop by sometime and relax.

Q: Where do you find art in your work?

Pilkington: Roasting coffee is a creative process that will not produce a worthy end without passion. This is the whole of the reason for my contentment in my work.

Q: Should art entertain or provoke? Should art jar one's politics, make one question his or her faith? Or should art just throw politics and faith out the door?

Pilkington: I am attracted to art that moves me. Whether it is entertaining, provocative, political, religious, is entirely unimportant to me.

Q: Who's your favorite artist, and how would you explain to this person your first experience with his or her work?

Pilkington: I don't have a single favorite artist in any one genre, but James Michener comes to mind. I remember reading Tales of the South Pacific and Hawaii when I was a very young man and just beginning my own travels through the Pacific. I would tell him how he made me feel like I was there, at the time and places of his stories.