Warren MacKenzie

[Kathleen Blackshear] just said, "Have you thought of looking at this?" and so on and so on and so on. And it…

— Warren MacKenzie

Some years ago I was working on some forms which were vase forms with a fairly narrow base, and it was after…

— Warren MacKenzie

I found out later on that was not true, that life drawing tells you a great deal about rhythm, about the structure…

— Warren MacKenzie

Remember, this is back in the '40s, and the idea of a museum being a place where interested people could come in…

— Warren MacKenzie

At the end of that two weeks Bernard [Leach] asked us if we would like to sit with him tending the kiln,…

— Warren MacKenzie

I got drafted into the army and by pure chance was pushed into a silk-screen shop at this camp where I was,…

— Warren MacKenzie

[In the Field Museum of Natural History] we could see very simple, primitive, hand-built pottery from Babylonia and ancient Egypt and so…

— Warren MacKenzie

Chicago is a wonderful area because it's blessed with a tremendous number of museums of various sorts, not only the Art Institute…

— Warren MacKenzie

It was a wonderful opportunity. And so for two and a half years we lived with [Bernard] Leach.

— Warren MacKenzie

We thought [with Alix MacKenzie], if those are the kinds of pots from every culture that interest us, why would we think…

— Warren MacKenzie

I went to the Chicago Art Institute, which was the best painting school in the area at that time. And I took…

— Warren MacKenzie

It was there that we really first came in contact with the work of Shoji Hamada, who was Bernard's best friend from…

— Warren MacKenzie

Bernard [Leach] was making pots which were duplicates of his drawing, and that was a difference of approach, which I think is…

— Warren MacKenzie

I don't know, it's very difficult if you're in a strange country to just barge in and say, "Hello, I'm Warren MacKenzie,…

— Warren MacKenzie

[Shoji] Hamada seldom drew an exact drawing of a pot that he was going to make.

— Warren MacKenzie

Eventually we even got to the point where we could disagree with [Bernard Leach]. I mean, when we first went there, gee,…

— Warren MacKenzie

Here is this ability to explore ideas, but with minute changes, and then look at the results. Often you get so excited…

— Warren MacKenzie

Our main inspiration [with Alix MacKenzie], I think, came from the Field Museum of Natural History, because they had pieces which were…

— Warren MacKenzie

In the Leach Pottery we did most of our work on the wheel. [Bernard] Leach did a little work in the studio,…

— Warren MacKenzie

[I made in army] all sorts of dumb things, but it did teach me a lot about the silk-screen process.

— 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…

— Warren MacKenzie

In fact, I believe to a certain extent a person today who starts with just clay, with no drawing and no painting…

— Warren MacKenzie

In fact, [Bernard Leach] was several generations removed from us. At that time we were there, I think Alix [MacKenzie] and I…

— Warren MacKenzie

At that [childhood] time, of course, if you were involved in art, it was going to be drawing and painting, because that's…

— Warren MacKenzie

We stayed on at the Institute [Chicago called the School of Design] because that was - I don't know, you start at…

— Warren MacKenzie