Originally Posted by Vance Wood

... Some individual thought that because trees grew in this shape naturally that bonsai should reflect this form. I suppose you could say that form and style are interchangable but I kind of look at the two as being subtly different. You form something out of nothing, you style something as a reflection of something already existing. In other words style draws upon a prexisting image, concept or pattern. Without that original form there cannot be a style derived from it.