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Mackenzie was born in
1956, the eldest of seven children. His early years were spent
in a small terraced house in the town centre of Middlesborough.
His early formative
years were spent playing in and around the streets and back
alleys of terraced houses. Derelict bombed out houses provided
an exciting playground for Mackenzie and his Uncle Lawrence –
three years older and a protective, guiding influence in
Mackenzie’s life.
Mackenzie’s father
worked as a labourer and his mother an auxiliary nurse. Life for
the Thorpe family was no different to that of most of their
community – at times a struggle.
Mackenzie
acknowledges mixed emotions about this period in his life. He
remembers the strong feeling of community spirit, the strength
of individual characters, the warmth and humour that flourished
in the face of adversity, in the most unlikely of settings. He
has also not forgotten the loneliness and isolation, the fear
and the darkness that was ever present, waiting it seemed in
every shadow. The vivid reality of these barely faded memories
is apparent in some of Mackenzie’s works.
The need and
compulsion to draw was obvious from an early age, he would seek
out and create with whatever raw materials he could find. Life
for most people was about struggle and survival. Mackenzie’s
driving force was always to draw. He did not, could not,
question this need. It is a need that remains with him today.
Mackenzie is one
of those rare artists who are completely inseparable from their
work. His restless energy and his passionate concern for
humanity are as evident in his free-wheeling conversation as in
his paintings and drawings. Whether he is depicting one of his
notorious ‘square sheep’, a group of burly men hunched over
their dominoes in a smoky pub or a fantasy Wild West shoot-out,
his work speaks to you as decisively and compellingly as if he
had slapped you on the shoulder. There is no pretension, no
aloofness, just the urge to explore and communicate a deeply
felt emotion. |
