While at Yale he became interested in art, and began to teach himself to paint in oils, sculpt in clay, and carve in marble and wood.
In the early 1960s he began carving huge discarded slate blackboards, and developed a unique method of printing monoprints on fabric without assistance or the use of machinery.
His exhibitions in New York City in the 1960s were critically acclaimed, and his sculptures and slate prints were bought by museums and important collectors.
In 1964, Kent moved to a farm house in Durham, Connecticut and continued working there on his monumental wood sculptures all the way up until two days before his death in 2012.
Kent became the first curator for the John Slade Ely House, an art center in New Haven, Connecticut.
[4] His work had strong environmental, social, and political messages and were usually satirical and humorous, but also possessed an angry, bitter tone.