Alumni family makes good on Concordia

The prize, worth $25,000, honours Mackenzie’s illustrious career. “The award allows you to believe you’re on the right track,” she says. “Even if you might feel you’re fumbling around in the unknown, it confirms that that’s okay.”

For years, Mackenzie’s paintings have encouraged viewers to question commonly held assumptions about Canadian history and gender roles. They are big and bold — filling massive canvasses with bright, abstract designs — and often feature elements of Canadian iconography.

While studying at Concordia, Mackenzie — who was interested in various modes of printmaking — was encouraged to switch to painting by the late Guido Molinari, LLD 04, a Concordia professor she grew close to.

Molinari was a leader in terms of understanding pictorial space and colour, Mackenzie says. “He brought such ferocity in convincing you that all this stuff really matters.”

After receiving her Governor General’s Award, Mackenzie travelled to Montreal, where she was honoured at a private party by old friends, former classmates and Concordia faculty. During the event, Rebecca Ducos, dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts, spoke about Mackenzie’s significance as a painter and educator.

Mackenzie taught Studio Arts at Concordia from 1978 to 1985, before joining the faculty of Emily Carr University of Art and Design, where she continues to teach.

Donald MacPherson

Cluny Mackenzie-MacPherson

As they charted their respective careers, MacPherson and Mackenzie also raised three children. Cluny Mackenzie-MacPherson, BA 10, was born while his mother was teaching at Concordia.

He decided to attend the university as a mature student. After a term of general studies, Mackenzie-MacPherson, was admitted to Concordia’s prestigious Liberal Arts College.

Upon graduating with a double major in political science and Western society and culture, he moved to Zambia, where he volunteered for a nongovernmental organization that runs a school for underprivileged children.

Within three years, he was in charge of the NGO. Under his guidance, the school expanded — from nine grades to 12 — and built additional campus housing for students.

Following in his father’s footsteps, Mackenzie-MacPherson is now working for the Carnegie Centre, an organization that works with marginalized populations in Vancouver. Carnegie staff help people navigate the welfare system and find housing — a challenging job in a city in the midst of an acute housing crisis.

Like his parents, Mackenzie-MacPherson is deeply analytical. He is critical of the wider system he operates in and takes pride in being a part of an “action-orientated team” whose members are not afraid to roll up their sleeves and help a client with a move if need be.

“In a system that can make casualties of people with bureaucracy and red tape, it’s fun to be part of team that has an ethic of problem solving,” he explains.

Like his parents, Mackenzie-MacPherson remembers his time at Concordia fondly.

“Studying things like political theory and philosophy does allow you to think about the type of person you’re becoming and who you want to be,” he says. “Those years were formative in preparing me for some of the challenges that lay ahead — even if I had no idea what those would look like.”

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Related links

• Faculty of Fine Arts
• Department of Applied Human Sciences
• Liberal Arts College
• Landon Mackenzie’s website
• Donald MacPherson’s website