Stonington Poster
Silkscreen
Francis Hamabe
Born in Orange, New Jersey, on Aug. 1, 1917, Francis Hamabe was the son of a Swedish mother, and a Japanese father. Active in the arts in high school, Hamabe enrolled in the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts and began a career in commercial illustration. In addition to designing ads, he was a brilliant creator of humorous vignettes, some of which ended up in The New Yorker.
In 1946, after serving in the army, Hamabe returned to art, attending the Rhode Island School of Design under the G.I. Bill where he had the chance to study painting and sculpture. Hamabe also learned screen printing, a technique which, along with oil paint, watercolor, and Japanese sumi ink drawing, would serve as a principal means for making art throughout his life.
In 1947, Hamabe moved with his new wife Sydney Gardner into her family’s summer home in Stockton Springs and it didn’t take long for Hamabe to make a name for himself in the Maine art scene. He served as the first art instructor at the Farnsworth Art Museum; helped found Maine Coast Artists (now the Center for Maine Contemporary Art) in 1952; took part in Vincent Hartgen’s traveling art shows and did production work for Maine Public Television at the University of Maine; was art director at Down East and later Maine Life; and taught at the University of Maine at Machias.
The Maine coast, especially the harbors and working waterfronts, was a constant source of inspiration for Hamabe. His love of the place extended to financial considerations too: “Many fine artists work in New York all year just so they can come to Maine for two months in the summer,” he once noted. “I’d rather work up here for less money and be in Maine all year ‘round.” Hamabe eventually left his adopted state, living out his life with his beloved Phyllis in Bristol, R.I. His legacy in Maine lives on, through the institutions he helped launch and the art he made for everyone.