“Finally if I had a pot that needed decoration, I would hand it to Alix [MacKenzie] and I would say, "Can you do something with this?" And she'd look at it for a while and then proceed with a brush to embellish the form and enhance the form, and it was wonderful. She could bring the pot to life, whereas if I did it, it was a disaster.” IfsLooksHandsFormWonderfulNeededDisasterPotBrushesDecoration Author:Warren MacKenzie
“So I very quickly stopped almost all decoration. I was interested in the three-dimensional form of the pots, but my decoration was nonexistent.” FormThreePotDecoration Author:Warren MacKenzie
“I found out later on that was not true, that life drawing tells you a great deal about rhythm, about the structure of a human being or any animate object, and this could be directly translated into thinking about proportion and accent, rhythm in a pot form.” ThinkingHumansFormFoundHuman BeingsDealsObjectsStructureDrawingRhythmProportionPotAccents Author:Warren MacKenzie
“Other thing about [Field Museum of Natural History] which inspired was that in a group of pots you wouldn't see a single example of this kind of pot. You would perhaps see a case with 20 different examples. So you realize that these pots could be repeated again and again, and each time there would be minor variations in them.” KindDifferentWould BeRealizingNaturalCasesGroupsExampleFieldsInspiredMuseumsPotMinorsAgain And AgainVariationNatural HistoryMuseum Of Natural History Author:Warren MacKenzie
“In looking at these pots at the Field Museum, Alix [MacKenzie] and I both came to a conclusion individually but also collectively that the pots that really interested us were the pots that people had used in their everyday life, and we began to think - I mean, whether it was ancient Greece or Africa or Europe or wherever, the pots that people had used in their homes were the ones that excited us.” PeopleThinkingMeanHomeUsedFieldsEuropeEverydayAncientExcitedConclusionMuseumsPotEveryday LifeGreeceAncient Greece Author:Warren MacKenzie
“We thought [with Alix MacKenzie], if those are the kinds of pots from every culture that interest us, why would we think that it should be any different in mid-North America 20th century? And we decided then that our work would center around that sort of utilitarian pottery, and that's what I've done ever since.” IfsThinkingShouldKindDifferentDoneAmericaCultureInterestCenturyDecidedPot20th CenturyNorth AmericaPotteryUtilitarian Author:Warren MacKenzie
“I find it really enriching to make pots which people are using and which they come in contact with, not only visually in their homes but tactilely - when they pick them up, when they wash them after dinner, and so on and so forth.” PeopleHomePicksDinnerContactPotEnriching Author:Warren MacKenzie
“This is something which I think I have been able to communicate to both people I have taught and people that have purchased our work since that time, that they all say, it's so nice to have these pots with us all the time and to eat out of them and be in direct contact with them in our homes.” PeopleThinkingHas BeensHomeAbleNiceTaughtDirectCommunicateContactPot Author:Warren MacKenzie
“When we worked at the pottery, we did learn to make pots, that is, the physical act of making the pot. We learned to control clay, to put it where you want it and not just wherever it wanted to go, and that was valuable. At the end of about six months, though, I think if that was all we had, we may have been inclined to leave because the workshop did not challenge us so much as living with [Bernard] Leach did.” IfsThinkingWantMayHas BeensEndsWantedChallengesMonthsSixValuablePotSix MonthsClayWorkshopsPottery 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
“When Bernard [Leach] wrote his book, he wrote about the fact that even when pots are made in a series, there is a personality to each pot and that the person who made it reflects their personality into the clay.” PersonsMadeBookFactsPersonalitySeriesMade ItPotClay Author:Warren MacKenzie
“We were working from very exact models and dimensions and weights of clay to make these pots which had been designed some 10 or 12 years previous to our arriving [at Bernard's Leach studio]. And we, being, I guess you would say young, arrogant Americans, thought that we ought to be able to somehow express ourselves a little bit more in the daily work of the pottery.” YearsLittlesAbleYoungBitsOughtLittle BitModelsWeightStudiosDimensionsPotArrogantClayArrivingPotteryDaily Work Author:Warren MacKenzie
“Looking back on it now, I understand why that was not possible [to express ourselves], because the pottery employed a dozen people, not all of whom are making pots. And these people had families, children, and they had to have a wage that would allow them to raise their family and they had to get a paycheck every Friday afternoon. So if we had not made pots that would sell it, would not have been possible for these people to be employed.” PeopleIfsChildrenHas BeensMadeRaisesSellsPotAfternoonDozenLooking BackEmployedFridayPaychecksPotteryFriday Afternoon Author:Warren MacKenzie
“We could make our own pots on the weekends and in the evenings, and we used to do that, and these would be fired in the big kiln, along with all the standard ware that we were producing, but this wasn't quite what we had expected when we read The Potters Book.” BookBigsWould BeUsedStandardsExpectedEveningPotWeekendPotters Author:Warren MacKenzie
“We never had a catalogue; we never said we were going to duplicate these pots this year and next year and the year after that and so forth. We did make many pots which were repeated, but we allowed them to change and to grow as we changed and grew, and I think that was the big difference. And that's all right; we were working for ourselves. We didn't have anybody we had to pay.” ThinkingYearsSaidBigsNextGrowsDifferencesPayChangedGrewPotNext YearCataloguesDuplicate Author:Warren MacKenzie
“Eventually I gave up teaching at the St. Paul Gallery because of disagreements with the philosophy of that museum, and I got a job at the University of Minnesota, which was very fortunate because it was a part-time job and that gave us a great deal of time in our studio to work together and to make the pots we wanted to make.” PhilosophyWantedTogetherJobsDealsTeachingUniversityStudiosFortunateWorking TogetherMuseumsPotDisagreementGalleryGave UpMinnesotaPart TimePart Time Jobs Author:Warren MacKenzie
“We were living with Bernard [Leach] in his home. He had a fantastic collection of early English and Japanese and Chinese and Korean pots and German pots, contemporary English work as well. And we had access to this collection.” WellsHomeAccessContemporaryFantasticChineseCollectionsPotKorean Author:Warren MacKenzie
“In fact, when Bernard [Leach] would be called away to go up to London for something and we'd be living alone for a couple of days, we would dig into the storage areas in the house and we'd get out all the pots that we might not see in the course of our daily life, because we weren't using them in the house on a steady basis. But we found some fantastic pots in there tucked away, and we could look at them and examine them and handle them.” LooksFactsMightWould BeCoursesFoundHouseCoupleAreasBasesLondonHandleFantasticDaily LifePotSteadyStorageLiving Alone 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
“If [Bernard Leach] didn't like the drawing, he'd X it out and do another one and change the form a little bit. And when he was all done, he would stuff these pieces of paper in his pocket and go off to the pottery, and when he wanted to make pots, he would then take these out and he'd begin to produce the pot that he had designed on paper in front of us.” IfsLittlesDoneWantedFormStuffBitsPiecesFrontsProducePaperLittle BitDrawingPocketsPotPottery Author:Warren MacKenzie
“[Shoji] Hamada seldom drew an exact drawing of a pot that he was going to make.” DrawingPot Author:Warren MacKenzie
“Bernard's [Leach] drawings delineated every little accent on the pot, every subtle curve and change of angle and proportion and all.” LittlesDrawingProportionSubtlePotAccentsAngleCurves Author:Warren MacKenzie
“[Shoji] Hamada's [drawings] were little one-line notations of something he wanted to remember about a pot or a piece of furniture or a landscape or something like that, and they were just done very quickly and they had, he thought, no artistic quality. They're not great drawings, but they served to remind him of something he had in his mind, so that when he then went to the studio, that would stick in his mind and he could explore the making of the pot with the clay on the wheel.” MindLittlesDoneWantedRememberLinesQualityPiecesSticksStudiosDrawingArtisticLandscapeWheelsPotFurnitureClayOne Line Author:Warren MacKenzie
“Bernard [Leach] was making pots which were duplicates of his drawing, and that was a difference of approach, which I think is quite critical to these two men [Leach and Shoji Hamada].” ThinkingMenTwoDifferencesApproachCriticalDrawingPotDuplicate Author:Warren MacKenzie
“I think back to some of the pots we made when we first started our pottery, and they were pretty awful pots. We thought at the time they were good; they were the best we could make, but our thinking was so elemental that the pots had that quality also, and so they don't have a richness about them which I look for in my work today. Whether I achieve it all the time, that's another question, because I don't think a person can produce at top level 100 percent of the time.” ThinkingFirstsLooksPersonsMadeTodayLevelsQualityAchieveProducePercentAwfulPotRichnessElementalsPottery Author:Warren MacKenzie
“I make a lot of pots in a year's time and some of them are good and some of them are mediocre and some of them are bad. If they're really bad and I'd be ashamed of them, I throw them out, but if they're mediocre and they'll serve the purpose for which they're designed, that is, a mixing bowl or a soup bowl or a plate or whatever, I sell them. And this income from the sale of these pots permits me to go on and make other pots. It's even more important now that I've quit teaching, because I do not have a teacher's salary to fall back on.” IfsYearsImportantPurposeFallTeacherTeachingGoes OnSellsQuittingIncomeAshamedPotPermitPlatesBowlsMediocreSoupSalaryMixingFall Back 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
“If you press-mold a pot or if you slab-build a pot, the work has got to take much, much, much longer than if you work on the wheel. And I to this day have the ideal that I want my work to be not too expensive, so that if people buy it and break it, it's not going to be the end of the world. I'm not interested in having things in museums, although some of our work has ended up there, but that's not what I'm striving for.” PeopleIfsWorldWantEndsBreakIdealsPressesStriveWheelsExpensiveThis DayMuseumsPotNot InterestedEnd Of The WorldMoldSlabs Author:Warren MacKenzie
“I'm striving to make things which are the most exciting things I can make that will fit in people's homes. And in that respect, working on the wheel is economically about the only answer I know, because one can, as Leach said, make 50 pots in a day. You can make 100 pots in a day. A really good potter can make 400 pots in a day.” PeopleKnowsSaidI CanHomeAnswersFitExcitingStriveWheelsPotPottersExciting Things Author:Warren MacKenzie
“Since your time is your main involvement here - I mean, the clay doesn't cost very much. Even the glaze and the firing doesn't cost a great deal. But your time is the cost, and if you can keep your time to a minimum and still come out with the results you want, that means the pots can be sold for an economic price.” IfsWantMeanStillsResultsDealsEconomicCostPotMinimumClayInvolvementFiring 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