FEATURE
It ’ s the inspiration behind the latest exhibition in his Richmond gallery , appropriately titled Made in Teesside , the walls brimming with art that can best be described as a homage to his hometown .
These days he lives in Hove on the south coast with wife Susan , a Park End lass he met in the bar at Teesside Polytechnic , but Mackenzie was born into a family living in a small two-up , two-down terraced house on St Paul ’ s Road , off Union Street in the heart of Middlesbrough . Later his parents took their seven children to the new model estate of Beechwood .
A young life of real austerity helped form him into the man he is today . “ We had nothing ,” he recalls . “ We didn ’ t have holidays , we didn ’ t have a car , we had no luxuries whatsoever . We had a poor life . I ’ ve got nice cars and homes now , and I have holidays now and again , but the values I grew up with in Middlesbrough are the most valuable to me . That place keeps me who I am . It never left me .
“ I remember talking to someone at an art exhibition in New York and I told her my mam had nowt . She looked at me with a bemused look and said ‘ Oh , is that like
“ I ’ ve got no time for arty-farty types , I ’ m the bloke from Middlesbrough , and no matter what I ’ ve come across – the best restaurants , the most beautiful hotels or whatever - I ’ m just the same .”
– MACKENZIE THORPE
Polio or something ?’” By his own admission he sometimes struggled to fit in at school , struggling with a never-yet diagnosed dyslexia and leaving with no qualifications to his name but a burgeoning talent for art that hadn ’ t always been appreciated by his elders .
“ School was really tough ,” he admits . “ One day one of the nuns who ran the place said to me ‘ If you were to die now , God wouldn ’ t let you go to heaven .’ I believed the Bible 100 % back then , so this made me listen . She said ‘ You ’ ll never get married , you ’ ll never get a job . Do you know why ? Because all you do is draw . This is Middlesbrough . There ’ s no time nor place for it here . If you don ’ t learn something you won ’ t be able to get a
12