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Valley Lives
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This article first appeared in the "Valley Lives" column in the July 30, 2025 issue of the The Low Down to Hull and Back News.
Reprinted with permission. Search complete list of Low Down Articles.
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David McKenzie
David McKenzie - a unique artist in life and in his craft
By Phil Jenkins
Each one of us is a unique combination of competencies, of abilities and talents. As we grow older, either by luck or willpower or both, we get to put our talents to use, to make a living doing something we love, something we are built for.
Seventy-four years ago, in the McKenzie home in Hamilton, David was born. His father was in the armed forces, and so they travelled. His mother was a piano teacher. He was their second child; four more would come after him.
After studying chemistry for a year at the University of Alberta, David's father was transferred in 1974 to the Department of National Defence in Ottawa. At the time, David was in his early 20s and he transferred his studies to Carleton University. There he studied architecture, the designing of buildings, an ability that would stand him in good stead later on. But his passion for pottery, for creating in clay, became uppermost, and he dropped out of architecture and spent all his time in the university's arts and crafts pottery studio, moulding his talent.
It was while he was in that studio that David met a fellow potter, Maureen Marcotte. They began an exploration of the possibilities of clay and glazing - and each other - leading to a marriage of hearts and talents that would last almost half a century.
Anxious to leave the city for the country, the couple cruised the Ottawa and Gatineau river valleys, and in 1979 they landed on a small farm north of Wakefield - Mapleview Farm.
With the summer kitchen converted into a pottery studio, they began to integrate into the local community. That reaching out, like following a path of stepping stones, led them first to their neighbours, the Hardies - John and Annick - and then to the Geggies - Norma and Stuart. They became members of L'Armoire des Artisans, a co-op shop on Valley Drive in Wakefield, and their opportunities for the display and sale of their prodigious output blossomed.
Now a family of four with two daughters, Annie and Allegra, the urge to own their own place grew. In 1990, when the Geggies offered them a piece of their land in the heart of Wakefield, it was the ideal solution. All that was needed was a house for the land on Chemin Sully. David sat down, designed their future home, called in his brother, Greg, and together they built it. Gradually, it became the centre of both their family and their business. When they decided that they would only sell their wares from home, David again sat down and designed and built an adjacent gallery. It became a commercial and cultural hub for them and the village, and local musicians, authors and painters filled the space.
Although they shared a studio and their parenting - parent one week, potter the next - their artistic approach to working in porcelain was different. In any work of art, the personality of the maker infiltrates the pieces they produce. Anyone who ever engaged with David in conversation, with his wit, quick laughter and incisive view of life, could see him in his creations, in the colours of his self-discovered palette of glazes, textures and illustrations that graced their surfaces.
David treated the surface of his high-fired porcelain and stoneware like a canvas. Rather than suppress his playful nature, he coupled it with such influences as surrealism, mythology, folk arts, and filmmaking. As he said, 'The painting and the form demand respect from each other, influencing each other, telling in concert a story together.' The common reaction on viewing David's pieces in the gallery on Sully was a smile of both appreciation for its artistry and for the tale it told.
A week ago, on July 24, David would have turned 74. But, after a shockingly brief time in hospital fighting pneumonia, he died on April 21.
The consolation for his leaving us is that artists of David's calibre create a rich legacy of works. His works of art survive to be cherished in his own home and garden, as well as locally, nationally and globally. They live on. David's touch is there in the 75 commemorative plates that he, Maureen and Allegra created in 2008 for then Prime Minister Stephen Harper to gift to heads of state gathered in Quebec City; it's in those 60 plates they made for former Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin to hand out to her counterparts abroad; and, here in the Hills, many many homes have David's tangible presence within. And are better for it.