bonsaiTALK Community - View Single Post - Bonsai, Art, and the big picture

Regardless of one's particular point of view there is one thing that comes through loud and clear, most people that frequent this forum are passionate about their relationship with bonsai. What we have to gaurd against is that we do not let our passions for our point of view trun into personal attacks and diatribes bemoaning the other's concepts and approaches.

If you are happy doing bonsai the way you have been doing it and the results you achieve please you then you have no reason to go beyond that point. If on the other hand, you would like to learn more, and make better bonsai than you are now making then you should be willing to listen to new ideas, old ideas, and adventerous ideas. A lot of the things that Kimura is seen doing in the publications show casing his work were never done before he tried them, like cutting away the vein of living bark from the dead wood. Bending old wood, spliting entier trunks, and so on. So he learned new things by experimenting where none had before, and all of us benefit from his inovations.

If you are not interested in these kinds of things don't worry about it, but don't be overly critical of those who are interested and want to learn. I remember when I started bonsai in 1957. Bonsai was almost unheard of outside of the Japanes comunity. There were very few books and most of them were awful. They left you with the impression that you would never see a good bonsai in your life time because it took at least fifty years to create a bonsai.

The techniques demonstrated in the books created sticks in pots with the suggestion that all you had to do was wait several generations for it to mature. There were no special tools available and bonsai pots were virtually nonexistant till about 1960. Today a "Newbie's" biggest problem is an overabundance of information, so much so that it is easy to get confused and side tracked.

I've been growing bonsai for almost fifty years and I am still yearning to learn more and become better at what I do. I kind of blush when some put me into the same sentence with Walter Pall let alone compare me to him in some small way. My stuff in my eyes is trash compared to Walter's. I am not going to make excuses and say my way is the right way, or boast beyond my out put, but if someone can show me a better way or make my trees better I would trash the last forty-eight years to achieve that end.

There is a Biblical proverb that states: The people perish due to a lack of knowledge.

12-Jun-2005	#10
Vance Wood bonsaiTALK ArchMaster Join Date: Sep-2002 Location: Roseville Michigan Country: USA USDA Zone: 5/6 AHS Heat Zone: ? Posts: 2,329	Regardless of one's particular point of view there is one thing that comes through loud and clear, most people that frequent this forum are passionate about their relationship with bonsai. What we have to gaurd against is that we do not let our passions for our point of view trun into personal attacks and diatribes bemoaning the other's concepts and approaches. If you are happy doing bonsai the way you have been doing it and the results you achieve please you then you have no reason to go beyond that point. If on the other hand, you would like to learn more, and make better bonsai than you are now making then you should be willing to listen to new ideas, old ideas, and adventerous ideas. A lot of the things that Kimura is seen doing in the publications show casing his work were never done before he tried them, like cutting away the vein of living bark from the dead wood. Bending old wood, spliting entier trunks, and so on. So he learned new things by experimenting where none had before, and all of us benefit from his inovations. If you are not interested in these kinds of things don't worry about it, but don't be overly critical of those who are interested and want to learn. I remember when I started bonsai in 1957. Bonsai was almost unheard of outside of the Japanes comunity. There were very few books and most of them were awful. They left you with the impression that you would never see a good bonsai in your life time because it took at least fifty years to create a bonsai. The techniques demonstrated in the books created sticks in pots with the suggestion that all you had to do was wait several generations for it to mature. There were no special tools available and bonsai pots were virtually nonexistant till about 1960. Today a "Newbie's" biggest problem is an overabundance of information, so much so that it is easy to get confused and side tracked. I've been growing bonsai for almost fifty years and I am still yearning to learn more and become better at what I do. I kind of blush when some put me into the same sentence with Walter Pall let alone compare me to him in some small way. My stuff in my eyes is trash compared to Walter's. I am not going to make excuses and say my way is the right way, or boast beyond my out put, but if someone can show me a better way or make my trees better I would trash the last forty-eight years to achieve that end. There is a Biblical proverb that states: The people perish due to a lack of knowledge.