Kent makes bowls . . . bowls made from exotic tropical woods grown in Hawaii, and they turn out to be just about the thinnest and most translucent lathe-turned bowls created anywhere in the world. Entirely self-taught, his unique application of various woods, shapes, and procedures has influenced other wood turners all over the world. While in London recently, Kent gave a demonstration/lecture to one of England's oldest and most pretigeous Woodworking Guilds, sharing with the members his secret freezing technique for "bowl blanks" (You wood-turners will know what THAT'S all about.)

His highly acclaimed artistic expression began as a hobby some twenty-five years ago in his garage, with a wood-lathe that his wife bought him for Christmas. Today, his one-time backyard avocation finds him pursued by world-renowned museums - including the Louvre in Paris, the Vatican Museum in Rome, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Smithsonian Institute's Renwick and Cooper-Hewitt galleries in Washington, D.C., and the American Crafts Museum. His bowls have been accepted into the highly prestigious Art In The Embasies Program of the State department, and one of his special transluscent turnings sits just outside the Presidential living quarters as one of two of his pieces
in the White House Collection.

Kent uses, for the most part, the introduced Norfolk Island Pine because of its rich patterns. Mr. Kent claims that no one was using Norfolk pine as an Artwood until he developed methods to demonstrate and disemminate its beauty, opening the floodgates to the myriad number of excellent woodturners now using this species of wood.