Rockwell Kent | While sort of aimlessly surfing sites about a couple of different artists, I stumbled upon a wealth of sites about the artist Rockwell Kent | I've long admiered his work, as well as his indomitable spirit | And it takes very little encouragement (none, actually) to spend a moment telling you all about one of my most favorite artists |
     Now, to bring you up to speed on this, Much of the time I spent was while looking at a remarkable site devoted to Kent's work that was put up by Doug Capra, a history and writing professor at Kenai College, up in the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District | I wrote Capra about his site | Herewith I share what I wrote |
     Coming across the pages -this evening- that you've put up about Rockwell Kent's time in Alaska was a breath of fresh air for me. And I read what you have written thus far on your play, which I gather you have already had at least part of it performed. Hope it was well received ...or is he still getting bad press in Alaska?
     And since I was able to enjoy another's perspective on an artist I have for many years enjoyed, I thought it only fair to share with you a brief encounter with Mr. Kent, albeit, posthumosly; he being represented by his widow, Sally.
     I was, at the time, working for a printing company (Denton Publications) in the Adirodacks
back in the late 1970s. One Christmas season it was my job to come up with a center spread "Christmas Card" that would be published in all the 10 papers the company printed each week | One thing was certain was that everybody was tired of having head shots of themselves with some holly and wreaths on the side |
Since I was handy at pen and ink sketching myself, I was assigned to come up with something new |
     At the same time, I had recently seen a show at Lake Placid Arts Center that was comprised of many different Christmas cards created by Kent for friends, family, corporations and just as concepts for cards | I quickly saw that whatever I would do wouldn't hope to match up with the beauty of Kent's possibly "minor" works | My idea, then, was to see if we could get permission to print a card or two as the centerpiece in the papers | I had no idea what I was getting into |
     I got the gumption up, looked in the phone book, and called Sally Kent Gorton at Asgaard Farms | She said she'd be delighted to have me come visit and see what might be suitable |
     I expected to stay an hour or so. I spent the entire day |
     She graciously showed me around their home, the one built after the fire in 1969, pointing out a vast array of paintings, prints, raw sketches, stage designs (for an opera, Peer Gynt) that he had done and were still at home |
     Because it was cold, the studio was closed, but after the tour of the home, she left me alone in a room filled with drawered cases of works on paper | She apologized for the work being so disorganized and told me I would have to look through the darwes to find the images I fet I needed |
     The rest of the day I was left alone with the collection | It was like being thrown in a cave of riches and told
to look at whatever I pleased | When I was through, I'd pared it down to some two dozen images, which she then entrusted me to take with me for a week so the printing company could reproduce them | She asked only that the paper print a proper copyright notice as the Estate was having troubles with an unnamed but prestigious publishing house in New York City that had apparently taken to publishing works of her late husband without even a scintilla of permission or credit, profiting from the sale of reproductions of work without proper payment |
     At the paper, it was difficult to pick out which ones would go larger which would not | We opted to print them all | One of them, a cross section of a family's home at Christmas, was the cover image |
     When I brought them back, she again thanked me and gave me a print of Kent's of the Upper Jay, NY covered bridge, only a few miles from Asgaard | I thought I should be thanking her |
     Later, I was to receive two gifts | One of them one of the few remaining signed copies of N X E, the other, an 1890s edition of William Blake's "Jerusalem" with two different bookplates on the inside page | A letter was enclosed noting that the book had survived two marriages and a fire and that whenever I got tired of doing hand lettering to look at these things for inspiration |
     I still do |
     I also further marvel, to this day, how both the power and generosity of Rockwell Kent survived all this time, well after his passing from this realm |
     While I was disappointed in not learning what or how the play concludes, what I read so far has me hoping to some day read the rest | If you haven't already done so, I hope you can complete your play about Rockwell Kent | I recognize though, that, sometimes, any thoughtful project can take years to complete |
     It seems so important that people do what they can to preserve and make known the work and life of this exciting human being | How much richer we all are for the vibrance of his life, and for the ability he had in being able to chronicle it so skillfully |

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for more info on Rockwell Kent:
Plattsburgh State's Rockwell Kent Gallery | Rockwell Kent Wilderness Homepage by Doug Capra | Smithsonian Magazine article The Stormy Petrel of American Art | Artcylopedia's Rockwell Kent entry | The Hermitage Museum collection  ¶ 23:28