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diggPots with Soul
By Holly Dolezalek
Photo by ERIC MOORE
He considers fame an occasional annoyance. He hates seeing his work on eBay at inflated prices. For years, MacKenzie limited his sales to one pot per household per month because of one concrete principle he’s carried with him throughout his artistic life: Pots should be useful and used, not set aside as expensive works of art. “I make pots to be used, and they should be inexpensive so that anyone can afford them,” he says.
MacKenzie still throws pots in a studio behind his Stillwater home, where he’s lived for decades. And he still fires his pots in the gas-fired kiln he built himself, which looks like a giant oven in a castle with a warp drive attached to it.
Because he’s capable of turning out an extraordinary amount of work in a short time, cupboards throughout the nation contain his simple plates, bowls, teapots, cups, and vases, glazed in earthy colors: brown, gold, black, and cream. Likewise, galleries across the country have shown his work.
What is it about MacKenzie’s pottery that sets it apart? Kris Douglas, chief curator of the Rochester Art Center, believes that MacKenzie’s pots are beautiful because they’re simple but well made; they haven’t been overworked or over-decorated. “He’s very unself-conscious in his art, and his familiarity with the clay makes it possible for him to almost allow the pot to make itself,” says Douglas.
Emily Galusha, director of the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, which sells MacKenzie’s pots, calls him a courageous artist. He’s in his 80s and has been throwing pots for almost 60 years, yet he still comes up with something new for each pot. “He’s not making the same pots that he made in 1972,” she says. “He’s still experimenting and risking and trying things that may not work out, and he’s definitely not resting on his well-deserved laurels.”
A retrospective of more than 300 pots thrown by this pre-eminent potter between 1948 and 2006, and collected during the past three years, will be on display at the Rochester Art Center from May 19 to August 26.
Holly Dolezalek is a Minneapolis freelance writer.
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