Benign Beauty

“For months after I started doing these, I called them ‘the tall things,'” says artist Ron Kent. “Then a collector said he wanted to put one by his front door, and I thought, guardian. By their very stature, I can see where they would be perceived as threatening, but they are protective.” After a wave of recognition for his wood bowls, the Guardian Series is a return to formats Kent explored in the late 1960s. He works on them inside his Kailua studio, which is “far enough back from the house so the dust doesn’t get into the living room, and close enough that I can wrap a towel around me and run out there in the middle of the night. I turn on some soft jazz and hand-sand. It’s very meditative.” (For a list of galleries and upcoming shows where you can see the art, visit www.ronkent.com.)