Artist and author a Dubliner, too?
Regarding the title (Dublin Artist an Author, too) of the reprinted February 2006 article on Rockwell Kent in the most recent print issue (Friday, Dec. 26): after reading the article, I wrote my mother (an artist) and father (a poet) in Connecticut and warned them they had better not visit for an entire summer, or they’d be forever known as “Dublin artists.” While not a moniker to be ashamed of, Kent’s several months’ stay with Abbott Thayer seems an insufficient credential to gain membership to that particular club. … (Based on the article, he may have equal or greater claim to being a “Greenland artist.”) I do very much enjoy Kent’s work, particularly his woodcuts, and most particularly those he executed for the 1930 Random House edition of Moby Dick. Whatever his politics, I think it’s clear his heart yearned for the wild North Atlantic and both the Arctic and Antarctic maritime climes more than it did for our little “Dublin Pond.”
Best regards,