Warren MacKenzie • American: B. 1924

Born in Kansas City, Missouri. Family included brothers Fred and Gordon and sisters Marge and Marilyn. He spent most of his youth, through high school, in Winnetka, Illinois, a well-to-do suburb of Chicago.

Enrolled in Chicago Institute of Art to study painting. He had always been interested in art, but according to his parents, “wasn’t very good at it.”

Drafted into the Army. He spent most of his service years in Asia where he was a screen-printer and cartographer. During this time, he was able to journey throughout Asia soaking up the culture and arts.

Re-enrolled at the Chicago Institute of Art. With the student population swollen by the GI Bill, he found the painting classes he wanted to attend were full. He instead enrolled in his first ceramics class. There he met his future wife, Alixandra Kolesky.

One of the other students in his ceramics class brought in a book by Bernard Leach, an English potter, titled: A Potters Book. The class was fascinated by Leach’s insights, much to the chagrin of the instructors. Alix and Warren were also fascinated by the pottery they saw in the Field Museum of Natural History and decided to focus on creating pottery suitable for everyday use.

With Alix, now his wife, he set out for Minneapolis where they were promised arts-related jobs by Hilda Reiss, who was in charge of the Walker Arts Center. They hoped to set up their own pottery following the model set by Bernard Leach.

Realizing they needed further training if they are ever to become successful potters, Alix and Warren set sail for St. Ives, UK, hoping to become apprentices at the Leach Pottery. Leach looked over their work and rejected them, but relented after allowing them to participate in Pottery activities for two weeks.

Alix and Warren apprenticed at the Leach Pottery. Through a fortuitous set of circumstances they also lived with Bernard Leach and soaked up his knowledge and ceramics industry contacts. Leach’s original partner in the Pottery was Shoji Hamada who was a master of eastern folk pottery. He also influenced the MacKenzies.

The MacKenzies returned to America and set up shop on an old farm outside St. Paul, Minnesota. Warren secured a teaching position at the University of Minnesota. They were determined to keep prices for their pottery low so that common people could afford to buy and use them.

The MacKenzies ran their rural pottery and raised a family. They established a growing international reputation for their functional, yet beautiful, pottery. Consistent with the Japanese folk art tradition, their pieces were meant to be used. In 1962, Alix died rather suddenly from cancer. Two years later, in 1964 the Pottery burned down due to a kiln-based fire.

Warren began to rebuild his pottery as three concrete buildings, impervious to future fires. The studio included an honors-based showroom where guests are asked to leave payment for their pieces in a wall-hung basket. Theft and lack of payment eventually forced a revised sales structure.

Married his second wife, Nancy, a textile artist. The two became leading lights in the St. Croix Valley arts community outside St. Paul.

Received the McKnight Distinguished Artist Award from the McKnight Foundation, a Minneapolis-based arts organization. The write-up in their Awards Book is titled: Simply A Potter, and included testaments to his efforts to democratize studio pottery.

Closed the honor system showroom in his Stillwater, Minnesota, home studio. He was also angered that customers were reselling his pots for huge profits. For the rest of his life his work was only available in select galleries and exhibitions.

Nancy died and Warren was left alone with his pottery.

On the last day of the year, Warren Mackenzie died at the age of 94. Just a potter until the end.