Joanie

Beautifully said, Vance. And exactly true.

In every culture, there is craft. The making of utilitarian objects, everyday items that ease our existence. Sometimes the craftsmanship is ordinary, but the touch of another person and it may become art. Craft is the bones of the skeleton, without which it cannot stand. Art is the muscle and flesh, without which it cannot move.

To dismiss the soaring buttresses and transcendant angels carved into a cathedral as merely craft, one must ignore the delicacy and the vision of each individual stonecutter. Making the cheek of an angel look soft, the eyes look beseeching, the drapery of their robes look flowing, is not mere craft. And so with bonsai. You must be able to do the horticultural aspect first, without which the tree would die. Then, the vision comes. Peter Adams called it a "visual memory" and he advocated wide study of GOOD trees to augment it. Drawing on that memory, form can be brought to the tree. Some people will be able to bring grace and movement as well, and the ability to give the tree a soul comes to the person with both craft and artistry.

Recognizing that not everyone can be artistic, and conversely that not everyone who declares themselves to be an artist is correct, is simply recognizing the scope and spectrum of human ability. Art can spring from craft, spontaneously, perhaps quickly and perhaps only after years of trying. The world is littered with the output of self-declared artists. Attics and basements are filled with their work. They can yell on the street, or debate in scholarly journals, but in the end art is elusive and cannot be defined. Art moves people, touches people. You can't tell people that they should be moved, they either are or they aren't.

If a person did one really good bonsai, one heart-stopping tree, and all of the rest of their work is just run of the mill, are they an artist?

Joanie