Ron Kent (1931 – December 15, 2018), also known as Ronald E. Kent, was an American woodturner who was born in Chicago, Illinois. He ran his own investment company in Hawaii. In 1975, his wife Myra gave him an inexpensive

lathe A lathe () is a machine tool that rotates a workpiece about an axis of rotation to perform various operations such as cutting, sanding, knurling, drilling, deformation, facing, and turning, with tools that are applied to the workpiece to ...

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 The Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, designated the Hawaii State Museum of Natural and Cultural History, is a museum of history and science in the historic Kalihi district of Honolulu on the Hawaiian island of Oʻahu. Founded in 1889, it is the lar ...

(Honolulu, Hawaii), the

Hawaii State Art Museum The No. 1 Capitol District Building, on the site of the former Armed Services YMCA Building, now houses the Hawaii State Art Museum and the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. History While they were both in the cabinet, under King ...

, 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 (2 ...

(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 100 ...

(New York City), Musée des Arts Décoratifs (Paris) and the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds ...

(Washington, D. C.). Kent was the father of kimono redux artist Elizabeth Kent and novelist

Steven L. Kent Steven L. Kent (born August 28, 1960), son of woodworker Ron Kent, is an American writer, known for both video game journalism and military science fiction novels. Career In 1993, Steven started work as a freelance journalist, writing monthly v ...

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