Portland’s creative economy is an incredibly diverse collection of people doing a dizzying array of things at a very high level. They can do all of these things (and often more than one) because Portland is such a compact and hospitable place. The growing, interconnected communities that populate our cafés, music halls, art galleries, restaurants, farmers markets and technology parks are filled with unique individuals developing original ideas and unusual talents. Live here for a while and you will meet a bunch of them, but at LiveWorkPortland, we want you to meet them all. To start out we have have picked a half dozen couples and individuals who we think represent some of the range and reach of Portland’s creative community and assigned radio producer and documentarian Willa Kammerer and photographer Tonee Harbert to profile them in the form of audio slideshows.

We will be producing more of these audio slideshows, but obviously not one for every creative person in Portland! Our goal is to represent as broad an array as possible of the people who make the creative economy in Portland tick. Artists, designers, writers, filmmakers, web developers, performers, architects and foodies, of course, but also entrepreneurs, inventors, scientists, educators, lawyers and venture capitalists. Please nominate people who you think should be included on the site. Tell us who they are, what they do, how they can be contacted and why you think they are a person to watch in the Portland creative community. We will review the nominations before we post them (to avoid spoof nominations for Bart Simpson or the mascot of the Portland Red Claws basketball team!) but we will include all legitimate nominations—and some we will select for future audio slideshows. Over time, we hope our People to Watch listings will become the definitive, community generated directory to creative Portland. Thanks for being part of it.

NOMINATED PEOPLE

Jennifer S Muller is the art director and designer responsible for creating and designing the first nine issues of Maine magazine. She now happily resides once again in her small boutique design studio specializing in branding, book and publication design. Trained at Pentagram in New York City and schooled at SVA, she is always up for a good creative challenge. Clients have included Artisan Books, Chronicle Books, Meredith Publishing and numerous stores and restaurants in NYC. Local clients include SPACE, Bliss, Blanche & Mimi, Jonathan Levitt photography and Karen Lewis photography.

Kate Diamond is a powder keg of creative – Dr. Sketchy, activist, cartoonist, educator, etc etc katiediamond.com. [second nomination:] Katie is an inspiring artist and activist. She runs Dr. Sketchy’s Portland, is a freelance designer, and works for the North Star in a booking capacity. Somehow she still has time for being involved in CampOUT, a camp for LGBTQAI youth in and outside of Maine, and her own art and comics to boot! She currently has a show of paintings up in Jan Hanseth’s massage State Street studio, and was recently published in Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation, out this fall. It’s amazing, but she still has time to be an incredible friend, too.

Dave Shima We have eaten at all the Sushi places in Portland. We have also lived in many cities who have great sushi. And, one of us sells fish for a living. Dave Shima provides one of the most pleasurable restaurant experiences that we have had. He was at Fuji for many years until he finally decided to open his own place…. So successful is his Shima Restaurant that he’s expanding and opening a bar!  Dave is a great guy and takes pride in everything he prepares. Try the sea urchin mac and cheese with truffle. YUM-Oh-la!

Jenny Elowitch Jenny is one of the founders of the Portland Chamber Music Festival. I’m pretty sure she grew up here (her parents are Rob and Annette Elowitch of Barridoff Galleries) but moved away then came back. She’s also a gigging musician, plays for the Boston Pops, teaches, etc.

Becki Smith Becki is the executive producer of 207 and Bill Green’s Maine on WCSH-6 TV. The 207 show in particular does an amazing job supporting all the creative arts in Maine—music, theater, restaurants, books. It’s rare that a city the size of Portland has so much local arts programming on prime time television. It says a lot about Becki and about Portland that her show is so successful. Obviously, she has a great team, but she’s really the vision behind it.

Matthew Robbins Matthew is both a photographer and a musician. He fronts the area’s best-known rockabilly band, King Memphis. He also is THE guy to call if you need exciting music photography. His photographs of motorcycles are also very very cool. What makes Matt extra special when he puts his creativity into his commercial projects. He was the best graphic designer I ever worked with at the Casco Bay Weekly or the Portland Phoenix. I have used him for the occasional commercial shoot and he always comes up with some very cool photographs.

Joshua Langstaff Originally from Michigan, Joshua relocated to Portland in August. Joshua is a talented, nationally recognized classical painter. He was featured in the September 09 issue of Southwest Art as one of the 21 artists under age 31 to watch. It is unique to have a classically trained painter living in a city this size and I think it is important to highlight the fact that he is here. His studio is located at One Forest Ave and his work has been well received during First Friday Art Walks. He received his training at Aristides Classical Atelier in Seattle and his work has been featured in the books “Classical Painting Atelier” and “Classical Drawing Atelier” as well as in The Artist’s Magazine. You can view some of his work at www.joshualangstaff.com

Lauren Fensterstock Lauren is an artist beginning to be recognized on a national level. She is also the curator of the The Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art. She was also the 2010 Maine Arts Commission Individual Artist awardee in the visual arts. laurenfensterstock.com

Arielle Saiber she’s a dynamic young scholar of Medieval and Renaissance literature and philosophy at Bowdoin. A top Dante scholar. Also studies: Intersections between mathematics and literature, The literary fantastic, The imagination, Theories of “space”, Technology, Dante, medieval and early modern Italian literature, the literary fantastic, science and literature. bowdoin.edu

Masa Miyake As Julia Moskin said in the New York Times, Masa Miyake has raised the bar on sushi in Portland. He opened his restaurant Food Factory Miyake in 2007 and is preparing to open a second this summer, a noodle bar called Pai Mei Miyake. He is a true Portland success story, achieving here in three years what would have taken many more years, if ever, in New York. foodfactorymiyake.com

Mark Bessire Mark Bessire came to Maine in 1998 from New York City as the first Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art at the Maine College of Art. Since then, he has reshaped the art world in Maine. By showing artists as diverse as William Pope.L, Wenda Gu, and his ground-breaking exhibition Cryptozoology: Out of Time Place Scale at Bates College, Bessire has challenged our definition of art. Now the Director of the Portland Museum, Mark Bessire is redefining the museum and its role in our community. portlandmuseum.org

Kent Gordon Kent Gordon is a retired software engineer who has made his home in Greater Portland after leaving Silicon Valley. Kent is an active supporter of many of Portland’s arts institutions, and is invariably present at openings, events, and discussions.

Lauren Sullivan An environmental leader and founder of Reverb with her musician husband, Adam Gardner of Guster. Reverb provides turn-key greening programs for artists’ tours while conducting grassroots outreach and education with music fans everywhere. reverb.org

Bill Brown (William E. Brown, III, PhD) Dr. Brown is the Chief Scientific Officer, overseeing all Research and Development activities, of IDEXX Labs. IDEXX is a veterinary sciences company that began as a start-up in Portland in 1985, and is now a global company employing 4,700 people with sales of over 1 billion dollars. idexx.com

Gunnar Hubbard Gunnar Hubbard is an architect who operates at the forefront of the sustainable design movement He is involved in a wide variety of green building and LEED projects at Fore Solutions including: MGM MIRAGE CityCenter mixed-use development (Las Vegas), Harvard’s Allston Science Complex (Boston), Hannaford Augusta Store (ME), Limitless Towers (Amman, Jordan), Maritime City (Dubai, UAE), Jackman Border Station (ME) and the renovation of the Portland Public Market space for Powerpay (ME). He was a LEED faculty for four years and now teaches the green building workshops around the world. Recently he has taught green building classes in China, London, and Dubai. Gunnar also is consulting for BuildingGreen, and the USGBC, on content for LEEDUser Web-based tool for LEED 2009. He is a founding Board Member of the Maine USGBC Chapter and is on the City of Portland’s Sustainability Task Force. fore-solutions.com

Samantha Hoyt Lindgren Samantha was born in Brooklyn and served as a photo editor for Forbes, Life and People before interning under James Beard Award winning pastry chef Karen DeMasco at Craft. She now runs, with her husband Don Lindgren, Rabelais, a book store devoted to rare, out-of-print and new books about food, wine, farming and gardening. She (and Rabelais) are at the epicenter of foodie culture in Portland. rabelaisbooks.com

Alex Carleton Alex Carleton is the designer of the cult men’s brand Rogues Gallery, manufactured and sold in Portland. He has also collaborated with Urban Outfitters to produce the Never Sleep Collection in Spring, 2009. He also is responsible for the new Signature Line for LL Bean, a new brand launched in Spring 2010 for younger, hipper customers. Alex is an international fashion all-star based in Portland, Maine. roguesgallery.com

Robert Friesel Robert E. Friesel, Ph.D. is Senior Scientist, Director of Basic Science, and Director of the Center for Molecular Medicine at Maine Medical Center Research Institute. Dr. Friesel’s career has concentrated on growth factor-mediated mechanisms of angiogenesis, tissue remodeling, and development. These studies include several approaches such as transgenic and knockout mouse models, cell and molecular biology, in vitro and in vivo imaging, and proteomics. Dr. Friesel’s laboratory is investigating the molecular basis of blood vessel growth regulation by tyrosine kinase receptors (RTK) and the mechanisms by which RTK signaling is regulated. These studies have identified new targets for therapeutic intervention in vascular disease and cancer. www.mmcri.org

Ian Paige Ian is the Events Programmer at SPACE Gallery, the extraordinary venue in Portland devoted to contemporary, unconventional, and emerging arts, artists and ideas. He is the vice-president of the board of the Portland Arts and Cultural Alliance, a member of the band Planets Round the Sun, and a writer about arts and culture in Portland. space538.org