"Artists at Lunch" Series

Portside is excited to launch our "Artists at Lunch" series, a biweekly virtual artist talk being offered to the Portside community and beyond! During each of these 30 minute artist talks that occur every other Wednesday from 12:30-1pm EST, a new artist will be introduced. Artists will explain their artistic practices, share work, give demonstrations, and answer any questions that viewers might have. We hope to engage and connect with others by conducting these artist talks, and to provide each other with inspiration, because right now, art is more important than ever!
Although it is not required to view the "Artists at Lunch" series, we are encouraging viewers to consider making a donation to help support the Portside during this time, and to help us to continue "Empowering the Artists of Tomorrow."
All donations go towards Portside's children's scholarship fund. 
To tune into "Artists at Lunch," please click the link below and enter the password at the scheduled times:

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86591868414?pwd=MEFxTmlwcGNwOEpXRUxPSzNlTG42dz09

Meeting ID: 865 9186 8414
Password: 524824
Wednesday September 16th 12:30pm - Natasha Mell Taylor

My name is Natasha Mell-Taylor, I went to college and then graduate school and currently teach engaging children through art.
At this point in the statement, I used to write about dystopian universes with monsters that resented the sadness of the world and how I was merging the lines between reality and science fiction in my work.
​I would then go on to tell you about my “characters” and how they were so often symbols, yet literally represented people I had met at one point or another.
None of this matters now.
The world itself merged into science fiction without my paintings impact on absurdity. I am now spending most of my time parenting and quietly creating.
Wednesday September 2nd 12:30pm -
Veronica Ponce de Leon
​
Join us for this upcoming artist talk featuring Veronica Ponce de Leon! Veronica is a multi-media artist from Culiacán in Sinaloa, Mexico. Her paintings, paper mache, and found object sculpture have strong ties to her Mexican heritage, and reflect her experiences. Growing up surrounded by flowers and fruit markets, Veronica is inspired by her senses and surroundings. "It is my love for popular art, where through a clay jug, a pot, a pinata or an embroidered apron, a life story is told...a brief look at culture giving tradition to the beings that make up the community. My art is fed by my experiences, by the wonderful people who bring good or bad moments to my life. Thanks to this balance of good-bad, black-white, night-day, I can continue advancing in my unstoppable way of life: a life dedicated to artistic expression. I dance because I believe in happiness and love music; I paint because I see colors; I write because I love the lyrics and their impact; I am an actress because I can get lost immersed in a stage; I protest because I have a voice."
Wednesday August 5th 12:30pm - Zach Brown

Zach is a visual artist living in Los Angeles, working in various styles including portraiture, hyper-realism, graffiti, and cartooning. He works mostly in acrylic painting but is proficient in a variety of mediums such as watercolor, oil, spray paint, ink, pastel, and more. He has worked as a teaching artist with the non-profit organization The Unusual Suspects Theater Co. and Arts for Incarcerated Youth Network. Zach has become active in the current and ongoing fight for equality and civil rights in America, and is creating public art to inspire, provoke, and strengthen the movement. Currently, he is working on a series of public wall murals that depict historical photographs from the long journey to achieve liberation, equality, and prosperity for BIPOC in America. 
Zach's Instagram: @art_on_my_sleeve
Zach's Website: https://www.zachbart.com/
Wednesday July 22nd 12:30pm - Maria Dumlao

Maria  is a visual artist working in various combined media including film, video, sound, photography, and installation. Maria was born in the Phillipines and later immigrated with her family to the USA. She attended Rutgers University in New Brunswick where she earned a BA in Studio Art & Art History, and later received her MFA in Studio Art from Hunter College and began showing her work in exhibitions throughout the world. She has had residencies at Vermont Studio Center, Wassaic Projects, Experimental Television Center in Owego, NY, and at free103point9's Wave Farm in Acra, NY. Her collaborative work with Brainstormers has appeared at Brooklyn Museum of Art and Bronx Museum of Art (a collaboration with Guerilla Girls) and received funding from The Puffin Foundation. She currently teaches at Bucks County Community College in Newtown, PA.
​Wednesday July 8th 12:30pm - Cesar Viveros

Cesar Viveros Herrera is an artist born in Veracruz, Mexico. With more than 15 years creating public art in the United States and his Native Mexico. He has been collaborating with the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program since 1997. His Public work has been inspired by the communities he has served throughout the years to whom he has become the extended voice of their particular ideology, recurring primarily on documentary work that help him to visually articulate these individual stories to be exposed to a broader audience, such the particular case of inmates at the State Correctional Institution at Graterford Prison where he lead the creation of the 2003-2004 "Healing wall" murals (documented in the film Concrete, Steel and Paint) opening the doors to many other Art programs in the Philadelphia Prison and Family court systems and the Youth study center.
Wednesday, June 24th 12:30pm - Chris Windle

Chris' vast body of work spanning over 50 years ranges from technical still life oil paintings to illustrations for children's books. Chris graduated from Tyler School of Art in 1982 after traveling around America in the early 70's, and started a big family soon after. Since, he has worked with kids at a Recreation Center, been represented at Gallery 51 in Philadelphia, published a children's book in Colombia, and much more! Since retirement from the Rec. Center, he has been working part time at the Portside for a year. Tune in to hear some of Chris' fascinating and colorful stories, jokes, and to learn about his extraordinary talent as he shows and talks about his art. We guarantee he will knock your socks off!
Wednesday, June 10th 12:30pm - Jeffro Kilpatrick

effro Kilpatrick is a Philadelphia-based cartoonist and art teacher. 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. Jeffro also codesigned a community mural in the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia with the Mural Arts Program.
Wednesday, May 27th 12:30-pm - Kim Creighton

​Our premier "Artists at Lunch" will feature the Portside's very own Founding Director Kim Creighton, an artist specializing in mosaic art, painting, and epoxy. During Kim's talk, she will be demonstrating how she likes to do different types of pour paintings, using acrylic paint, Floetrol acrylic pouring medium and a secret ingredient she uses to make special effects. Get inspired by her funky abstract paintings during this 30 minute artist talk, and stay tuned for our full list of artists and dates soon to come!