Tuesday, January 20, 2009
"Air and Simple Gifts", composed by John Williams
Yo-Yo Ma , Itzhak Perlman , Anthony McGill & Gabriela Montero at the Obama Inauguration
"Air and Simple Gifts", composed by John Williams
Yo-Yo Ma , Itzhak Perlman , Anthony McGill & Gabriela Montero at the Obama Inauguration
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Friday, November 7, 2008
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
58 years of taking chances behind exhibit for potter | Lifestyle/Features | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle
58 years of taking chances behind exhibit for potter | Lifestyle/Features | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle:
The life of a potter
By EILEEN MCCLELLAND For The Chronicle
Sept. 7, 2008, 5:40PM
"Warren MacKenzie's goal as a potter is to turn off his mind and lose himself in the work. 'That's how you discover things, by chance,' he says.
A retrospective at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft traces the renowned artist's work from 1948 to 2006, exploring his development as a potter. Pieces by some of the artists he inspired are being shown in concurrent exhibitions at the center and at 18 Hands Gallery.
The exhibition at the craft center is arranged not chronologically but in groups of similar objects, so it's possible to see the development of MacKenzie-made vases or teapots over decades without taking a step.
Walking through the exhibition with MacKenzie as a tour guide offers a hint of his unassuming nature.
'This teapot is a nice teapot but there's no excitement,' he says. 'I can't fault it for design, but it has no spirit. I much prefer later teapots, because things are happening. I was taking more chances.'
In his own estimation, he advanced not only by taking chances but also by leaving things to chance. He began to accept some of the accidents that tend to happen in the kiln, as when the glaze on one pot splashes another, or when wood ash forms an unexpectedly bubbly or grainy texture on a vase."
"I think my work has gotten looser, more relaxed, and that's something I really strive for," he says.
MacKenzie, 84, grew up in Evanston, Ill. In high school, he knew he wanted to be an artist. "In the '30s, the only art they had was drawing and painting," he says, "so I knew that I wanted to be an artist, and I thought I was going to be the world's greatest painter."
After serving in the Army, stationed in Japan during World War II, he returned to the Chicago Art Institute to find the painting classes full. He reluctantly enrolled in ceramics. "I would have been a mediocre painter, and I think I'm a pretty good potter," he says. He also met Alix Kolesky, who became his wife and partner in the pottery studio until her death in 1962.
In 1948, the couple moved to Minnesota to teach ceramics, sculpture and design at the St. Paul Gallery and School of Art.
"We quickly found out we didn't know enough to open our own studio, and so we went to London to study," MacKenzie says. "We begged Bernard Leach to take us on as apprentices."
Leach, the father of British studio pottery, agreed, and the couple studied with him from 1949 to 1952.
"He could look at a pot, study it a while and say, 'This is the weakest part of it,' but he wouldn't tell you how to fix it. It got us very focused, but it also became my biggest handicap, because, as I said, I think too much," MacKenzie says.
MacKenzie's simple, functional, wheel-thrown stoneware is influenced by the aesthetic of the 20th-century Japanese potters Shoji Hamada and Kanjiro Kawai.
The pair were among those who founded the mingei movement in 1926 to revive the common crafts that had been overlooked during the industrial revolution. With the like-minded Leach, they sought to counteract the desire for mass-produced products by bringing attention to the works of ordinary craftsmen that addressed both spiritual and practical aspects of life.
"There is a looseness and a casualness to Shoji Hamada's work that is just wonderful," MacKenzie says.
MacKenzie is credited with bringing the mingei style to Minnesota, where it has been dubbed the "mingeisota style."
MacKenzie uses every pot or cup he collects from other artists — no matter how famous — and everything he makes is meant to be functional. He strives to produce a great deal of moderately priced, everyday pots. He often refuses to sign his work, hoping to control the prices collectors pay on the secondary market.
He makes about 6,000 pieces a year, firing 600 at once in his big kiln. "Alix and I chose a big kiln because we didn't like to fire often. It turned out that the bigger the kiln, the more chance there is for unexpected things to happen during the firing."
Each firing includes a huge variety, from platters and tall vases to yunomis, a type of Japanese teacup. He most enjoys making small and medium-size open bowls because their function is limitless.
He avoids painting his pots, prefering to decorate with printing and pouring techniques instead. "My painting was very hard-edged and geometric," he says. "If I take up a brush I'm a disaster."
MacKenzie, who lives in Stillwater, Minn., and is now married to fiber artist Nancy Spitzer, began teaching in 1952 at the University of Minnesota, where he is a professor emeritus. His students have included Randy Johnston, Jeff Oestreich, Will Ruggles, Douglass Rankin, Paul Dresang and Michael Simon.
"His standards and work ethics are high, and there is great integrity and strength in the work," Johnston says about his former teacher. "The pots he has produced for everyday use are pots that have a powerful autonomous presence and artistic meaning.
"Through his example, he has shown us that the making of pottery is a creative and physical activity, one that draws on the intellect and the emotions, the conscious and subconscious."
eileenmcclelland@mac.com
The life of a potter
By EILEEN MCCLELLAND For The Chronicle
Sept. 7, 2008, 5:40PM
"Warren MacKenzie's goal as a potter is to turn off his mind and lose himself in the work. 'That's how you discover things, by chance,' he says.
A retrospective at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft traces the renowned artist's work from 1948 to 2006, exploring his development as a potter. Pieces by some of the artists he inspired are being shown in concurrent exhibitions at the center and at 18 Hands Gallery.
The exhibition at the craft center is arranged not chronologically but in groups of similar objects, so it's possible to see the development of MacKenzie-made vases or teapots over decades without taking a step.
Walking through the exhibition with MacKenzie as a tour guide offers a hint of his unassuming nature.
'This teapot is a nice teapot but there's no excitement,' he says. 'I can't fault it for design, but it has no spirit. I much prefer later teapots, because things are happening. I was taking more chances.'
In his own estimation, he advanced not only by taking chances but also by leaving things to chance. He began to accept some of the accidents that tend to happen in the kiln, as when the glaze on one pot splashes another, or when wood ash forms an unexpectedly bubbly or grainy texture on a vase."
"I think my work has gotten looser, more relaxed, and that's something I really strive for," he says.
MacKenzie, 84, grew up in Evanston, Ill. In high school, he knew he wanted to be an artist. "In the '30s, the only art they had was drawing and painting," he says, "so I knew that I wanted to be an artist, and I thought I was going to be the world's greatest painter."
After serving in the Army, stationed in Japan during World War II, he returned to the Chicago Art Institute to find the painting classes full. He reluctantly enrolled in ceramics. "I would have been a mediocre painter, and I think I'm a pretty good potter," he says. He also met Alix Kolesky, who became his wife and partner in the pottery studio until her death in 1962.
In 1948, the couple moved to Minnesota to teach ceramics, sculpture and design at the St. Paul Gallery and School of Art.
"We quickly found out we didn't know enough to open our own studio, and so we went to London to study," MacKenzie says. "We begged Bernard Leach to take us on as apprentices."
Leach, the father of British studio pottery, agreed, and the couple studied with him from 1949 to 1952.
"He could look at a pot, study it a while and say, 'This is the weakest part of it,' but he wouldn't tell you how to fix it. It got us very focused, but it also became my biggest handicap, because, as I said, I think too much," MacKenzie says.
MacKenzie's simple, functional, wheel-thrown stoneware is influenced by the aesthetic of the 20th-century Japanese potters Shoji Hamada and Kanjiro Kawai.
The pair were among those who founded the mingei movement in 1926 to revive the common crafts that had been overlooked during the industrial revolution. With the like-minded Leach, they sought to counteract the desire for mass-produced products by bringing attention to the works of ordinary craftsmen that addressed both spiritual and practical aspects of life.
"There is a looseness and a casualness to Shoji Hamada's work that is just wonderful," MacKenzie says.
MacKenzie is credited with bringing the mingei style to Minnesota, where it has been dubbed the "mingeisota style."
MacKenzie uses every pot or cup he collects from other artists — no matter how famous — and everything he makes is meant to be functional. He strives to produce a great deal of moderately priced, everyday pots. He often refuses to sign his work, hoping to control the prices collectors pay on the secondary market.
He makes about 6,000 pieces a year, firing 600 at once in his big kiln. "Alix and I chose a big kiln because we didn't like to fire often. It turned out that the bigger the kiln, the more chance there is for unexpected things to happen during the firing."
Each firing includes a huge variety, from platters and tall vases to yunomis, a type of Japanese teacup. He most enjoys making small and medium-size open bowls because their function is limitless.
He avoids painting his pots, prefering to decorate with printing and pouring techniques instead. "My painting was very hard-edged and geometric," he says. "If I take up a brush I'm a disaster."
MacKenzie, who lives in Stillwater, Minn., and is now married to fiber artist Nancy Spitzer, began teaching in 1952 at the University of Minnesota, where he is a professor emeritus. His students have included Randy Johnston, Jeff Oestreich, Will Ruggles, Douglass Rankin, Paul Dresang and Michael Simon.
"His standards and work ethics are high, and there is great integrity and strength in the work," Johnston says about his former teacher. "The pots he has produced for everyday use are pots that have a powerful autonomous presence and artistic meaning.
"Through his example, he has shown us that the making of pottery is a creative and physical activity, one that draws on the intellect and the emotions, the conscious and subconscious."
eileenmcclelland@mac.com
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