Ron Kent (1931 – December 15, 2018), also known as Ronald E. Kent, was an American

woodturner Woodturning is the craft of using a wood lathe with hand-held tools to cut a shape that is symmetrical around the axis of rotation. Like the potter's wheel, the wood lathe is a simple mechanism that can generate a variety of forms. The operator ...

who was born in Chicago, Illinois. He ran his own investment company in Hawaii. In 1975, his wife Myra gave him an inexpensive lathe for Christmas. Not wanting to seem unappreciative, he walked down to the beach and found a piece of driftwood. Fitting it on the lathe, he turned a form from it with a sharpened screwdriver. In 1997, Kent took an early retirement from his financial profession to concentrate exclusively on

woodturning Woodturning is the craft of using a wood lathe with hand-held tools to cut a shape that is symmetrical around the axis of rotation. Like the potter's wheel, the wood lathe is a simple mechanism that can generate a variety of forms. The operator ...

. Ron Kent lives in Honolulu, Hawaii. Kent is best known for his translucent bowls made of Norfolk Island pine. His works are in the collections of the Bishop Museum (Honolulu, Hawaii), the Hawaii State Art Museum, the

High Museum of Art The High Museum of Art (colloquially the High) is the largest museum for visual art in the Southeastern United States. Located in Atlanta, Georgia (on Peachtree Street in Midtown, the city's arts district), the High is 312,000 square feet (28, ...

(Atlanta, Georgia), the

Honolulu Museum of Art The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. The museum has one of the largest single co ...

, the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

(New York City), Musée des Arts Décoratifs (Paris) and the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, D. C.). Kent was the father of kimono redux artist Elizabeth Kent and novelist Steven L. Kent.

References

* Heenan, David A., ''Double lives, crafting your life of work and passion for untold success'', Palo Alto, California, Davies-Black Pub., 2002. * International Art Society of Hawai'i, ''Kuilima Kākou, Hawai’i-Japan Joint Exhibition'', Honolulu, International Art Society of Hawai'i, 2004, p. 21 * Morse, Marcia and Allison Wong, ''10 Years: The Contemporary Museum at First Hawaiian Center'', The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, 2006, , p. 59 * Shaw, Tib, "Anniversary Profile: Ron Kent, Member #17" American Association of Woodturners, 2016, https://www.woodturner.org/page/30YearKent * Waterbury, Ruth and David Waterbury, ''Conversations with Wood'', Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2011, , pp. 131–137 * Wong, Allison, ''10 Years - The Contemporary Museum at First Hawaiian Center - Tenth Anniversary Exhibition'', The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii, 2006, , p. 59

External links

Ron Kent’s website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kent, Ron 1931 births 2018 deaths Artists from Chicago Artists from Honolulu