“At that [childhood] time, of course, if you were involved in art, it was going to be drawing and painting, because that's the only thing that was taught in the schools.” IfsArtSchoolCoursesChildhoodTaughtPaintingInvolvedDrawingDrawing And Painting Author:Warren MacKenzie
“I went to the Chicago Art Institute, which was the best painting school in the area at that time. And I took painting classes - basic elementary painting classes and drawing classes of all sorts.” ArtSchoolClassPaintingAreasDrawingChicagoInstitute Author:Warren MacKenzie
“In the middle of my second year at school, in 1943, I got drafted into the army, was gone for three years, and when I came back, I tried to get into the painting classes which I wanted, but because of all the returned GIs [the GI Bill], everyone was in school and the classes were all full. So I looked at the catalogue and found that there was a ceramic class offered and that there was space in that. I registered for a ceramic class and some drawing classes.” YearsWantedSchoolThreeFoundSpaceClassGoneMiddlePaintingArmyBillsDrawingThree YearsCataloguesGisCeramics Author:Warren MacKenzie
“In fact, I believe to a certain extent a person today who starts with just clay, with no drawing and no painting and no figure drawing, still-life drawing, various things, they miss a great deal.” BelievePersonsStillsFactsTodayCertainI BelieveDealsMissingFiguresPaintingVariousDrawingClayStill Life Author:Warren MacKenzie
“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
“Alix [MacKenzie], on the other hand, found that her painting would translate much more readily into decoration, and she could play with the spacing and the intensity of imagery on the form in a way which I could not. So that when we established our pottery, I was most unhappy with my decoration.” WayPlayHandsFormFoundPaintingUnhappyIntensityTranslateImageryDecorationPotterySpacing Author:Warren MacKenzie
“There was a school in Chicago called the School of Design. This was started by [Laszló] Moholy-Nagy, and it was a wonderful school, but we [with Alix MacKenzie] didn't go to that school. We did have friends who went to that school and we would visit there often, and I'm sure it pushed me in my painting direction very strongly just by association.” SchoolWonderfulDesignPaintingChicagoAssociationVery Strong Author:Warren MacKenzie
“I started to do silk-screen in the early days of my painting training, due to a woman who taught art history at the institute, Kathleen Blackshear. She was interested in silk screen and taught a class that I took.” ArtClassTaughtPaintingTrainingDuesScreensInstituteSilkArt History Author:Warren MacKenzie
“Robert von Neumann taught painting, and when I finally got into a painting class of his, he reacted in much the same way.” WayClassTaughtPaintingVon Neumann Author:Warren MacKenzie
“It was a figure painting class, where you had a model, and [Robert von Neumann ] would wander around and he'd come up behind someone and say, "Well, what are you trying to do?" And if you told him what you were trying to do, he would then proceed to discuss this with you and suggest things that you might look at and ways in which you could improve what you were attempting to do, etc - never worked on your painting, never touched your painting but talked extensively about what you were trying to do.” IfsWayTryingWellsLooksMightBehindsClassFiguresPaintingModelsCome UpWanderEtcTouchedAttemptingVon NeumannFigure Painting Author:Warren MacKenzie
“If you didn't know what you were trying to do, [Robert von Neumann] wouldn't say a word. He would just turn and walk away. So you very quickly learned to think that you'd better be attempting to do something in that painting class.” IfsThinkingKnowsTryingTurnsWalksClassPaintingAttemptingVon Neumann Author:Warren MacKenzie
“[Bernard Leach] talked about painting, but we never talked about ceramics in that evening. But at the end of the evening he said to us, "Well," he said, "I've changed my mind, and if you want, you can come back a year from now and apprentice in the workshop."” IfsWantYearsMindWellsSaidEndsChangedPaintingEveningWorkshopsApprenticeI've ChangedCeramics Author:Warren MacKenzie