It is Mackenzie’s belief that love is the most important thing in the world. Thorpe knows what he speaks of as he had a life without love and then a life with great love. Having love in his life has taught him what is truly important. Mackenzie Thorpe believes that if we all lived our lives based in love, then the world would be a much better place! Hearts are that universal symbol of love. It is recognized everywhere by most everyone. He could never use enough hearts to get the message across!

Mackenzie’s use of hearts is varied. Sometimes the heart is so big it looks like it could crush the person. Sometimes that is how love feels that it is so big that it could take your life. If you let it, love will take your life to much higher highs than you thought imaginable. What you feel might crush you turns to helium and carries you away. Sometimes there are so many hearts in the work you cannot count them all. That is also a message of an abundance of love. If you believe in it, the whole world surrounds you in love. Sometimes the love is behind you, sometimes ahead of you. Mackenzie shows us love in many different variations. He even has used bronze to depict something so soft as love. Everything leads back to love. If you have it in your life, you know. If you don’t have it in your life, you want it or at least should know to want it.

Mackenzie wants to be as inclusive as possible. He does not add faces so people of all ages, genders, and nationalities can put themselves in the artwork and feel it is them. If he were to paint the face of a boy then it limits it to boys. If Thorpe were to paint the face of a girl then it is only seen as a girl. The best reactions Mackenzie hears about his work is when an older man in his 70’s along with a younger granddaughter both see themselves in the same piece as the same character.

Mackenzie's idea is that we are all born the same, we are all equal. As we grow, we impose restrictions on ourselves and on our children. We are not born afraid of the dark. We are not born racists. We are not born frightened of spiders. We learn to be scared of new adventures, of new foods, of new experiences, and so our world shrinks. This fear is all between our ears, it’s not real. Yet we persist in living it and passing it on, instead of welcoming and sharing the joy of the new and the unknown.

For Thorpe, the big heads symbolize children: new, uncorrupted, their heads full of endless possibilities, open to whatever comes their way. It is only as we grow older that we become narrow and closed. Let’s keep our heads as big as possible. Continue to marvel at the beauty of nature, revel in the smell of the flowers and thank God we’re alive.

Mackenzie chooses to paint in pastel so he can use his hands. Using his hands is the most immediate and raw connection to get his messages out on paper. Every ripple of the sky is achieved with the side of his pinky finger.