A base camp is more than your average campground. It’s a launch pad for the expedition. It’s where trails into higher skies begin. This Thursday, in Portland, Maine, twenty emerging local artists will pitch their metaphorical tents, for one night only, at a hip new venue for this city.

Just a minute’s drive off the Peninsula’s East End, 193 Presumpscot Street is an empty beer distribution warehouse that Base Camp organizer Tessa O’Brien describes as a “giant, funky, empty box” of 20,000 square feet. Art will abound between the cement floor and the industrial ceiling fans two dozen feet above. Base Camp intends to share avant-garde work with a community accustomed to a visual arts culture moored at the fifty-ish downtown galleries and museums.

O’Brien says that she and her teammate, 23-year-old Will Sears, hatched the plot for a pop-up exhibition when they realized that Portland harbors boatloads of precocious fresh out of college artists who face steep competition from established creators when vying for the gallery walls. O’Brien and Sears, who count themselves in the young and fresh crowd, will feature their work as they spearhead this effort to wow Portland with its own underground scene.

Sears, a recent graduate of Syracuse University, works in an aesthetic of graffiti, typography, and abstract expressionism – just one sample of the range Base Camp will supply. Using muted tones and natural colors in mediums from spraypaint to charcoal powders, Sears describes his work as “a dialogue between abstract backgrounds and formal characters like letters and figures.” He moved to Portland last November because, unlike other thriving creative cities, this one has a cheap enough cost of living to allow a full studio downtown in his own house. “That’s huge being able to work all the time,” said Sears.

O’Brien is a muralist painter with an ambition “to have art be everywhere and accessible and a part of more people’s lives.” Since graduating from Skidmore a few years ago, she has painted murals regularly for major music festivals, including Bonnaroo and Phish shows. O’Brien recently collaborated with Sears and others on spraypainted signboards for the marketplace and foodstalls at this year’s Coachella. Like Sears, she originally moved here because studio space is so affordable. O’Brien admits that five years ago she would never have pursued a vision like Base Camp in Portland, Maine. “Now I have confidence in Portland’s creative community… [Base Camp] is now a legit need, and I know people will come.”

Who else will you find at Base Camp? Check out the photography of Ben Dehaan or the fashion design of AbbyAbby LLC. “You don’t see their work in the First Friday Art Walk or downtown galleries,” said O’Brien of the twenty artists who will be trailblazing the scene this Thursday, from 6:30 to 9:30. “I’m not opposed to galleries,” she continued. “They’re wonderful. But there needs to be an opportunity to experience art in a different setting.”

The warehouse openness and pioneering atmosphere will segue into an after-party surrounded by the exhibit. Food and drink will accompany danceable soul funk beats by local DJ Kyle Downs. Thankfully, Sears and O’Brien assure that Base Camp is only the beginning of quarterly pop-up shows just as bold.

This profile did not begin with a random refresh of the CreativePortland.ME site, but in a different kind of coincidence. At the end the Bright Eyes concert at the State Theatre my son grabbed a free poster that was being handed out as a kind of party favor. The following day I was writing about the show and came across some really great performance shots of the show by a guy named Robbie Kanner. I contacted him to see if we could add a couple of his pictures to the post and it turned out that 1) he had also designed that Bright Eyes poster and 2) I had seen his work before from having followed his link on CreativePortland.Me. CP.me, as I like to call it, exerts a kind of ambient pull. If you dip into it from time to time you become aware of adjacent corners of our creative community: people older or younger than you, people who specialize in other things than you do, and even some people who do things that you never even thought of.

Robbie is a very talented photographer, designer and media artist who comes to Portland by way of the same U. Maine, Farmington underground railroad that brought us designers like Kevin Brooks, Matt Selva and many others. Here’s how Robbie answered our (admittedly skewed) “Is-Portland-Maine-the-greatest-thing-since-sliced-bread” questionnaire:

How long have you lived in Portland and where did you move here from?
It’s funny, I’ve actually only owned an apartment in Portland since last September. I’ve been traveling down from Farmington when I was in undergrad, sometimes 4 times a week, but only recently have had a bed to sleep on in this city.

Which creative communities do you participate in and how easy/difficult was it to become a part of them?
I’m in a few different ones. The local music scene, which is just the best and unlike any other city. I’m also a new media artist and have shown in various galleries every first friday since December of ’10. In addition, I did some design work for Portland Stage and got involved in that theater scene. From my perspective it was pretty simple to get involved in all these communities. Really, just being dedicated to your trade will get you involved in whatever community you want pretty quickly.

As a young designer and photographer are there opportunities for you here that you wouldn’t/didn’t have elsewhere?
Absolutely. I speak so highly of Portland because it’s hands down, just the best. The amount of talent in local music is so incredible and I’m beyond privileged to design these records or photograph these bands. In addition, I recently became the Program Director over at Maine.FM where we play only Maine music. You want to know the most incredible thing about that? People listen. That’s what makes Portland unlike any other city; we support and believe in each other

Who are the people and what are the places or things that particularly inspire you in Portland?
Aww geez, I’d be typing for a decade if I were to get everyone/place mentioned. With that said, Mark Curdo, Jonathan Wyman, Kevin Kennie, Walter Craven, Chris Moulton, Ryan Peters, Kris Johnson, and Josh Brill. Empire Dine & Dance is where so many inspirational-half-in-the-bag conversations have happened for me. Inspiration is just a walk down Congress St. away in this city.

What is your favorite aspect of living in Portland?
I wake up every day feeling like P. Diddy in Portland; it’s that good. I leave my apartment and take my walk into work and just totally dig it. I love the people I see and the interactions I have with them. I love that dude who walks downtown and can only whistle one note at the top of his lungs and no one tells him to shut up. Mostly, I love that I can take comfort and pride in saying that I live in Portland, Maine.

How attached are you to living and working in Portland and what are the things that most keep you engaged here?
This is the longest relationship I’ve ever had! I’ve continuously dropped everything in my life for the people and this city because this community is what keeps me going. One of my best friends just had brain surgery and the first thing he said to me when he got out was “I’m alive! Let’s record this album.” That’s the mentality of so many people I know in Portland and that will keep me working and living in this city. It’s a way of life that I’m 100% proud of.

Have you made Portland or Maine part of your personal “brand story” or is place not important in how you present yourself to clients?
Well, it never did until recently. I started to think about how Maine represents quality and hard work in so many different aspects of life. For me, it goes from working on albums, websites, photographs, and radio all the way back to when I was 13 stacking bails of hay in central Maine. It’s the feeling you have after a hard days work that you want to convey to a client. Branding Maine into my work tells the story that I care about the quality of a product—and I absolutely do.

Bright Eyes gave a great show last night at the State Theatre. The band’s leader, Conor Oberst rubs people either the right or the wrong way, so I didn’t really know what kind of rapport he would strike with the audience. A few songs into the set he started talking about how he was really happy to be in Portland. I figured it was standard performer patter. But if you know his songwriting, you know that he has a way in his lyrics of colliding a heartfelt longing with something very particular and specific, and that’s just what he did. What followed was not a canned appreciation of what a pretty town Portland is, or how nice the people are or how good the food, or the local music scene, but something right to the point. “We come here a lot… when we finish an album… we’re kinda nervous… Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering… we always stay at the same hotel, walk the same streets… that man does magic… he’s a wizard, and he walks among you…” And there it was laid bare. One of the reasons why great musicians from all over the spectrum—Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, Eric Clapton, The B-52’s, Tony Bennett, Suzanne Vega, Steve Reich, Paul McCartney, Phish, Jeff Tweedy, Mavis Staples, the Kronos Quartet and just about everyone else in between—have feelings of affections for Portland is the work of one very inspired and talented man, Bob Ludwig. For those not versed in the sacred arts of audio mastering, what happens at Gateway Mastering is the final, critical step in turning recording sessions into releasable and reproducible music. In a classic interview on SoundStage!, Ludwig said, “I try to improve upon the master source if I feel more musicality is hidden in the tape…. The main key is the room itself. I tried to make it as acoustically perfect as possible.” So there you have it. Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis of Bright Eyes, like 1,300 or so other artists who have crossed Gateway’s threshold before, come to Portland to hear their unborn music as if acoustically projected on the walls of Plato’s cave. Leaving Portland, they know that every bit of the music that they made will make it out into the world, and for that they are truly grateful.

On a related note, wow, was this a great week for music in Portland! On Monday night I saw The Low Anthem perform at SPACE Gallery. As much as I appreciated Conor Oberst’s directness and sincerity—not to mention his rock star moves and seizure inducing light show—The Low Anthem totally won my heart. The four members of the band traded off on dozens of instruments, not one of which looked even vaguely new. They took their time and seemed to enjoy playing with the enormous dynamic range they have between close, quiet four part vocal harmonies to full out screaming Americana garage rock. Their performance communicated something visceral about the importance of individuality, the acceptance (and enjoyment) of imperfection and the way that care and discipline create a platform for abandon. It is the musical equivalent of artisanal, locavore food. I got to meet singer, drummer, stand up bass player and founding member, Jeff Prystowsky before the show. I asked him what made them come back to Portland and play at SPACE Gallery again. The subtext is that they have become a pretty big band with a major record label and they could clearly fill a larger and more lucrative space. Jeff didn’t know quite where I was coming from, but after a bit he said that multi-functioning art spaces like SPACE are few and far between, and those are the kind of places that they like to play. During the show, lead singer (and guitarist, banjo player and cell phone thereminist) Ben Knox Miller repeatedly said how much they liked playing at SPACE and how lucky we were to have such an art space in our city. And their last two records, Oh My God Charlie Darwin and Smart Flesh? Mastered by Bob Ludwig at Gateway as well!

Photos: Bright Eyes (above and below) by Robbie Kanner; The Low Anthem (below) by Aaron Flacke

I must be living under a rock, because I was surprised yesterday morning as I drove through Portland to see all of the hearts taped to virtually every storefront and architectural detail I passed. It was kind of thrilling, these random acts of tape and toner. It’s also totally corny, of course, but the scale of it was inspiring. Like a concrete reminder that we love each other, that we love where we live—that we need to make it more visible. In the Facebook world, this is friendship writ large. When I asked the woman behind the counter at Two Fat Cats about it she said something vague about a Valentine Phantom or Bandit. Next stop was Corey Templeton’s photoblog to see if he had shot it yet and to find out that this has been going on since 1976 and there is a Wikipedia page about it. Corey was busy working on something else, but told me that Samuel Cousins would be out shooting all the banditry that afternoon. You can see a few of his pictures above and the whole set at his website. I asked Sam if he had anything to tell me about shooting all those hearts yesterday. He answered, perhaps a bit emphatically, “Far too many people think it’s me! Quite a few people have asked me to put them in touch with ‘my boss’ (of the bandit club) because they have some great ideas. My friend Ryan Dlugosz went out shooting with me. When we started at noon, it was very gray. But we stopped for lunch, and when we came back outside, the sky had turned blue, and the temperature had skyrocketed to 50 and became quite a pleasant day. You can see one of Ryan’s photos below and the rest of the gallery on his website. Quite interesting to compare how two different photographers see things. My favorite hearts are the ones that are well placed and become more than just a post. The three you chose are good examples: The tin man [statue] getting a heart. There’s a certain sick humor with the expired parking meter. And the newspaper machine—today’s news? A heart. I think the hearts soften the otherwise harshness of the middle of winter. A few of the hearts were written on. I’m not sure I like this new trend. More so last year than this one. Some were touching, Some were mean. And some were pretty funny (usually the mean ones). But I still prefer ones that convey meaning without having to resort to words.” For the past year, there’s been a Facebook discussion topic branching off from the Portland Maine Encyclopedia of the 1960′s, 70′s & 80′s group, where it was happily reported that, “The Valentine Bandit was VERY busy last night. Hearts everywhere!” and, “The Valentine Bandit Lives! A giant Valentine Heart, hanging on the front of the PMA. Street-level hearts, everywhere. Even over here, in SoPo.” Yes, South Portland feels the love, too. You can see the PMA heart among other views at the Unseen Portland photoblog.

Photos by Samuel Cousins (top) and Ryan Dlugosz (bottom)

As our books turn into bits, the act of reading is becoming a more private and insular affair. Without a visible bookshelf to greet us as we enter the home or studio of a new friend, how will we know, in a glance, the intellectual echos and cultural connections we share? When it comes to visual artists and designers, the influences of others encoded in the heraldic crest of their bookshelves take a visible form in the work they produce in response to all those references. Portland artist and educator Adriane Herman is a lover of all manner of lists, out of which she makes exquisite prints and installations. The lowly list, Herman reminds us, is not a trivial thing. Our lives are filled with lists—the internet is mainly composed of lists linked to other lists—and quite possibly so are the circuits of our minds. For her latest project, Plunder the Influence, the list takes the physical form of the bookshelf. She asked artists she knows and admires to photograph a particularly important part of their library and write about how its contents have influenced them. The collaborative project was developed in conjunction with an exhibit curated by Portland artist Henry Wolyniec for the Kate Cheney Chappell ’83 Center for Book Arts called The Storytellers. Herman explains, “With an eye toward generating something appropriate for The Storytellers exhibition and its context—a reading room filled with bookshelves empty of books—I extended an invitation to people who have influenced my life and work to share visual and written documentation of how they consume, live with, and/or work near books.” At press time, the books in the pictures were not yet able to friend each other or post status updates, but that can’t be far behind! The group show in the Unum Great Reading Room at USM’s Glickman Library (7th floor), runs from January 24-March 12th, and also features works by Greta Bank, Patrick Corrigan, Carl Haase, Charlie Hewitt, Lisa Pixley, Alex Rheault and David Wolfe. There will be a panel discussion and exhibition reception with the artists on Thursday, January 27, at 5:30 p.m. Be prepared to be influenced.

There are two parts to the growth of the creative economy in Portland. There is the influx of passionate, independently minded practitioners of twenty-first century crafts that arrive here from New York and other large metros to spread their wings, raise their families and live in a place where one can spend time building community instead of commuting. We write about these people a lot on this blog. Equally important, though sometimes overlooked, is the need to create opportunities and options for the young future creatives growing up in the Greater Portland area. If we can add to the number of established entrepreneurs moving in and creating jobs for an increasing number of imaginative and well-trained young Portlanders, we will have a very sustainable virtuous cycle of economic growth. As if reading our mind, Maine College of Art has just announced a very significant scholarship program designed to keep our budding local talent in town. The Portland Area School Scholarship (PASS) will provide any graduate of selected area high schools who qualifies for admission to the undergraduate program a guaranteed $12,000 scholarship each year for four years or until they complete their BFA degree. At almost half off the projected $29,000 annual tuition for next year, this might look like a Groupon for local grads, but it’s really more like a gift that will keep on giving. MECA has continued to be an anchor of the arts district in Portland. With the completion last year of the expansion and renovation of the Porteous Building, the school now has all academic and studio facilities in one location, right in the middle of Congress Street. “Now, more than ever, students choose a college based on a sense of place,” notes MECA’s new President Don Tuski. “In addition to the rigorous arts education that students receive within our walls, they also have easy access to the vibrant creative community in the Portland area. We are so fortunate for this extended campus. This scholarship is an expression of our appreciation.” It is a clever way to both build enrollment and add to the distinctive, local character of the school. Arts education is one of the key ingredients in the growing creative economy. As Tuski says in his welcome letter on the MECA website, “It is becoming clear to many people outside the art world that artists, with their understanding of the world and their ability to innovate, are becoming the new problem solvers of our time—our creative entrepreneurs.” With the initiatives growing out of this approach, MECA is positioning itself to become an even more important player in Portland’s evolution as a hub of innovation and culture.

Photograph by Cynthia Farr-Weinfeld of CFW Photography

Of the well-known icons of work in Maine, the lobsterman probably ranks highest. But the North Woods logger has arguably been more important to the state’s history and economy. Portland photographer Tonee Harbert black and white images of the contemporary logging trade bypass the colorful beauty of the trees in favor of the rugged craft of their industry. A collection of these striking photographs, along with works by photographer Madeleine de Sinety and painter Alden Grant, make up an exhibit at the Pace Galleries of Art, at Fryeburg Academy, entitled, “Logging in the Maine Woods Today.” The show opened on January 10 and runs until March 4. There will be an opening reception for the artists this Saturday, January 22 from 12-2pm. The project is sponsored by the Maine Museum of Photographic Arts , a Portland based arts organization that supports fine art photography in Maine. Tonee is also represented by Aurora Photos, where you can see more of his work.

Most people visit Maine for the scenery, and many of them also come looking for bargains. Whether it’s the outlets in Kittery or Freeport or The Maine Mall, in South Portland, shopping is right up there with skiing as our biggest draws this time of year. So it was very good timing for the Maine Mall to offer up a 40-foot-long section of wall in a wide, well-traveled hallway for us to help get the word out about LiveWork Portland to the season’s shoppers. The bold, graphic banner, designed by Lucian Burg of LUDesign and Leslie Evans of Leslie Evans Design Associates, with photographs by Tonee Harbert and printed by Portland Color, encourages visitors (and locals) to “Join the Conversation [and] be a part of the creative economy in Portland.” It is a surprising message in a space dominated by national retail chains, but that’s part of the point. This is the Maine Mall, after all, not the Mall of America, and the Portland story has become a leading part of the Maine story. So unlike Kittery and Freeport, the Maine Mall can claim big box bargains just ten minutes from downtown Portland. And for Portland, the Mall is one of the main regional points of entry, like the airport, ferry terminal and bus and train stations. LiveWork Portland is betting that if people come to Maine searching for bargains, some of them will stay for our deal—living and working in Portland.

Photo by Tonee Harbert

Photographer Tonee Harbert just emailed this picture to us, and says, “After the lecture by Jenny Holzer at the Holiday Inn, a crowd of people walked over to see the light projection on the front of the Museum, Holzer had created, entitled For Portland. The words shone from a high-powered projector set up inside the back of a UHaul truck, parked in Congress Square. The words of the poetry of Wislawa Szymborska were projected onto the facade of the Portland Museum of Art. The Poem scrolled for an hour and forty minutes up the side of the museum, and then the program was repeated. A crowd of art lovers and passers-by gathered to read the words which scaled the building.” And here is the word on the street from twitter: John Gjika says, “At the Holiday Inn to celebrate contemporary art and the work of Jenny Holzer. One of the infinite reasons why I love this city.” Chellis Wilson says, “So glad I took Margaret to the Jenny Holzer lecture—incredible. And the projection, the group experience…so powerful.” Rob Gould reports Jenny Holzer saying at the Portland Musuem of Art, “Projections work particularly well when they’re done in places where people naturally gather.” Rob then says, “Portland Museum of Art gets a huge thumbs up.”

Fresh, local, seasonal—you hear it a lot—but Maine chefs do it better. That’s the delicious argument of “Fresh from Maine,” a gorgeous (and locally produced) new cookbook by writer Michael S. Sanders and photographer Russell French. The book is also beautifully designed by Lucian Burg of LUDesign (who had a major hand in the look of liveworkportland) which makes for an additional amuse bouche. Sanders and French, both founding members of Slow Food Portland, have surveyed the food scene from Kittery to Mount Desert Island for chefs who make the most of what the coast and farms of Maine has to offer. The book includes more than 50 recipes by 20 chefs and runs the gamut from Town Hill Bistro‘s Maine Shrimp and Peaky-Toe Crab Salad, to Bar Lola‘s Pan-Roasted Striped Bass with Endive and Orange, to Hugo‘s Braised Oxtails and Caoila‘s Panna Cotta with Raspberry Sauce. Steve Corry of 555‘s iconic Truffled Lobster Mac ‘n Cheese (above) is pictured in the book, but the recipe actually resides on the Table Arts Media‘s website with other premium content from the book and the author’s combined culinary archives, and is available to people who buy the book or subscribe to the site. The recipes are mostly fairly straight forward in the Maine style, but the ingredients are quite particular. The emphasis of the book is on the personalities of the different chefs, their novel approaches to food and how they finish and plate their dishes. They have a second edition and other projects in the pipeline, so we can count on not only more great food, but more great media about it. Perfect inspiration for cooking and eating out both, and proudly produced in Portland.

Spiced Lamb Loin with Carrot Puree, Hugo’s, Portland, Maine

Grilled Calamari with White Bean and Spinich Salad from Cailoa’s, Portland, Maine

Pan Roasted Striped Bass with Endive and Orange, Bar Lola, Portland, Maine

Photographs by Russell French from Fresh from Maine