Kristen Lindquist

Perspective

The classic Maine cottage—weathered grey shingles, surrounded by spruces—was designed and built by Rockwell Kent in 1906. Pheasants in the yard, garter snakes sunning on the granite doorstep. A view of the harbor, captured in several of his paintings, from a bedroom window. He sold the place and left the island twice. The first time it was personal: his wife Kathleen made him transfer the cottage deed to an island woman pregnant with his child. (The child died young.) The second time, after Kent and his third wife Sally had bought back the cottage in the 1940s, it was political: a registered Communist, Kent fell out of favor with the other islanders. He sold it to a fellow artist and never returned.

Although his cherry trees had to be cut down, there’s still an apple tree and a garden plot where Kent, a vegetarian ahead of his time, once boasted that he had the largest vegetable garden on the island. Along with Kathleen’s piano and a grandiose reproduction of a Parthenon frieze hanging over the fireplace, the tiny living-room still features a rustic rocking chair Kent made when he first built the house. It’s slightly off balance, rocking to the left.

studio tour
bright new shingles frame
the picture window

---

About the Author

Kristen Lindquist is a frequent book reviewer and the coordinator of the Haiku Foundation’s Touchstone Award for Haibun. Her books include island (2023, Red Moon Press), which won second place in the 2024 HSA Merit Book Awards, and It Always Comes Back, winner of the 2020 Snapshot Press eChapbook Award. She lives in Midcoast Maine. Read more: kristenlindquist.com/blog.

---