“In working on a drawing or a painting, one can rework and rework and rework and change ideas until you get it the way you think is right at that time. With clay that's not possible. You either succeed the first time, or you should wad it up and start over again, because you can't mess around with the clay and still have it fresh.” ThinkingWayShouldFirstsStillsIdeasPaintingSucceedFirst TimeDrawingMessClayStarting OverRework Author:Warren MacKenzie
“I thought I was going to be able to use my painting ideas as decoration on pottery, but my painting did not translate into decoration on pottery. I thought it was going to, and in fact I made, while still in school, a plate with one of my paintings on it, and that's exactly what it was, it was a plate with a painting on it. It was not a decorated plate; it was just a painting superimposed over a three-dimensional ceramic form.” MadeStillsIdeasFactsUseAbleSchoolFormThreePaintingPlatesTranslateDecorationPotteryCeramics Author:Warren MacKenzie
“Remember, this is back in the '40s, and the idea of a museum being a place where interested people could come in direct contact with works hadn't arrived on the scene yet. That, I think, I first ran into at the Freer Gallery in Washington, D.C., where a man named Marty [Martin] Amt decided that he really felt his job - part of his job, as an assistant [to the] director was to make the collection available to interested people.” PeopleThinkingMenFirstsIdeasJobsRememberFeltSceneDirectorsDirectDecidedAvailableContactRanCollectionsMuseumsGalleryAssistantsMarty Author:Warren MacKenzie
“We did respect [Bernard Leach], although we also were willing to challenge ideas and at least put forth our feelings about the way the pottery was run, about things that were done, about the pots we were making, etc. And we would get into sometimes some very fierce arguments. We'd be shouting at one another because of disagreements.” WayIdeasSometimesDoneFeelingsRunningChallengesWillingArgumentEtcPotFierceDisagreementShoutingPottery Author:Warren MacKenzie
“[Bernard Leach] was an incredible draftsman, and at the end of breakfast time, for instance, he would push his plate back, and he'd pull an old scrap of paper out of his pocket and a little stub of a pencil, and he'd begin to make small drawings, about an inch and a half, two inches tall, of pots that he wanted to make. And they were beautiful drawings. I really wish I'd stolen some of those scraps of paper, because those drawings were exquisite explorations of his ideas of form and volume in a ceramic piece.” LittlesTwoIdeasEndsWantedBeautifulFormWishHalfPiecesPaperIncrediblesDrawingInstancePocketsExplorationTallBreakfastPotInchesPlatesVolumePencilsStolenExquisiteScrapCeramicsDraftsman Author:Warren MacKenzie
“[St. Ives] is a wonderful place to live. It's a small fishing town and one can live there inexpensively. There's a sympathetic population of other artists, where you can exchange ideas, and it's quite rich in artistic thought.” IdeasArtistRichWonderfulTownsPopulationArtisticFishingSympatheticPlaces To LiveWonderful Places Author:Warren MacKenzie
“Friends of Bernard's [Leach] came to visit, and when we went to London, we were given introductions to people like Lucie Rie, Hans Coper, Richard Batram. All these people were, let's say, made available to us by a friendship with Leach. In addition there was a potter's group - what was it called? I think it was called the Cornish Potters Society, but I'm not sure of that. Anyway, they had meetings and we would go with Leach to these meetings and meet other potters, and they would have programs where they would discuss pottery and people would interchange ideas.” PeopleThinkingMadeIdeasGivenGroupsProgramMeetingsAvailableLondonNot SureIntroductionPottersPotteryInterchange Author:Warren MacKenzie
“[My pots ] are not like [Hans] Coper's at all, but the idea came from seeing catalogue of his work, although at the time we knew Hans, his work was nothing like that.” IdeasSeeingPotCatalogues Author:Warren MacKenzie
“Things happen very quickly and they have to happen quickly in order to have vitality, which I think is essentially part of a good pot. But in addition it means that you can explore an idea and change it and then change it and then change it; I don't mean by changing the one pot, but you make one pot then you make another that's related to that; you make another - you can make 50 pots in a day and none of them are going to be carbon copies of any other, but they'll all be related because there's something going through your mind about the form on that particular day.” ThinkingMindMeanIdeasHappensFormOrderParticularThings HappenRelatedCopiesPotCarbonVitality Author:Warren MacKenzie
“Here is this ability to explore ideas, but with minute changes, and then look at the results. Often you get so excited about what you're doing that you think, "Oh, wow, this is just great." And you look at it a week later and you realize you'd been excited by the act of creation, but what you've created is not really exciting when you look at it in cold blood. And so that, to me, is a valuable lesson also.” ThinkingLooksIdeasRealizingAbilityResultsBloodWeekMinutesCreationColdLessonsExcitingExcitedValuableWowValuable Lessons Author:Warren MacKenzie