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 Biography

Mackenzie Thorpe

... is one of the most interesting and original artists at work in Britain today. It is undoubtedly his vision of hope, which has moved so many art lovers and critics world-wide. His lively works, with their jewel-like colours and confident lines are almost impossible to categorise.

They are intensely serious, at the same time easily accessible. Full of humour and optimism, often almost painfully sad, intensely personal but with a universal message.

The artist was born in 1956, the eldest of seven children. His early years were spent in a small terraced house in the town centre of Middlesbrough.

Middlesbrough is an industrial town in the north of England and in the late 1950's early 1960's, much of the town centre was in desparate need of regeneration. The civil and social amenities that Middlesbrough now enjoys did not exist for Mackenzie, and those early formative years were spent playing in and around the street and back alleys of terraced houses. Derelict bombed out houses provided an exciting background for Mackenzie and his Uncle Lawrence - three years older and a protective, guiding influence in Mackenzie's life.

His 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 of 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 are apparent in some of his 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. So he would draw on cigarette packs with stubs of pencils, art materials being an unaffordable luxury. Mackenzie recalls his first experiments as blending colour were make-up, eyeshadow, lipstick and compact powder, illicitly obtained from his mum's make-up bag!

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.

Early influences were films and television programmes. Saturday mornings at the local cinema were made possible by the combined ingenuity of friends in gaining free entry via a back exit door. Here he was enthralled by the colourful images of other lives, of different places, of larger than life screen hero's. Mackenzie's ability to recreate on paper, Cowboys and Indians won him respect from his peers.

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