Warren MacKenzie A Life Well Lived Feb 16 1924–Dec 31 2018
It is a name rich with images of handsome, handmade pots, visions of living in harmony with the earth and of far off tales of Leach, Hamada and Cardew. It conjures memories of the fabled Minnesota School, of talented, passionate ceramic ambassadors such as Jeff Oestreich, Sandy Simon, and Randy Johnson among many others, of the euphoric explosion of the 1970s craft movement, and a time when beautiful handmade objects spoke of integrity and respect.
These were a few of my thoughts, tinged with nervousness, as I drove the last stretch of dirt road in search of Warren MacKenzie's house and studio – the last leg of a seventeen-thousand-kilometre journey to speak with one of the most influential potters of our time. At the end of the road, almost lost in the verdant midsummer's foliage of Stillwater, Minnesota, stood his home of sixty-four years. His welcome was friendly but oddly formal, reminiscent of a quieter, gentler time. Well past ninety years of age his once tall frame was stooped, his gait a little tentative. Yet when the conversation soon turned to pottery, there was a sharp recollection and an infectious enthusiasm peppered with incisive honesty.
“I got into ceramics by accident," he tells me, with an oft to be repeated chuckle. He had been studying art
