About John McKenzie
in his own words

lmost 30 years ago, I purchased an original Carmel jumper - a wonderful horse. Although in bad park paint, it was an extremely nice carving. After the horse was stripped of paint, I found Marge Swenson who is a noted expert in carousel history and restoration, painting and leafing a specialty. Marge and I became good friends and I was able to work with her in her studio on a part time basis for over a year.

A few years later- Marge and Lourinda Bray of Running Horse Studio offered a carousel figure restoration class which I took. By now I was feeling that this type of work was very fulfilling to me.

Restoring carousel figures seemed to fit my interest and personality. But I realized that I needed to know how to carve. I found Mr. W.P. Wilcox, a noted carousel figure carver here in Anaheim. He taught classes in his garage. Mr. Wilcox usually had six students in a class. He offered 12 four-hour classes in which he provided a small carousel horse blank and carving tools for a set fee.

He first instructed us on how to sharpen tools and then we actually started carving wood in the third session. At the end of the class, we were close to finishing the small horse - an ILLIONS style stander…mind you; these horses were only a teaching tool, not meant for supporting even a small child. The “bug” had hit me good now and I wanted to learn more and more. So after the class, I hired Mr. Wilcox to build me the Stein and Goldstein inner row blank. I carved that horse, which took quite a long time. I had a full time job and the carving was a weekend project.

At this point, I was contacted by Len Luiso to do some restoration work for him as he really enjoys the painting more so than the restoring of the figures. I really liked what Len was doing with his style of painting-using tube oils provides the painter more time to achieve the desired effect with muscle tone and shading etc… this fit me just fine as I don’t do anything fast. He taught me how to paint.

So now I’ve had all three elements of this work under study - restoring, carving and painting. I decided early on that I wanted to become a one stop shop person. I just didn’t want to depend on another for work and I felt I could learn to do.

So, this has become my work, which I really love. Actually I couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else. So for now, I try to keep up with the work, as hard as I can - mostly restoration work - but I do have some nice carving and painting projects in the future I’m looking forward to.

Lastly, let me thank you (EPCPS) for appreciating my work. I’m very proud that a figure I carved and painted will actually ride your carousel.

copyright © 2005 John McKenzie - all rights reserved