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"Imagination, we all have it, to some degree or the other. But in styling a bonsai we all too often don't call on our imagination and attempt to recreate a bonsai in the image of some basic bonsai icon, stoically following styling traditions that came from Japan some 50 years ago. These basic "rules", or principals, ARE important and ARE essential in getting on started on the road to creating good bonsai; but they are only the beginning of the journey, they are not the end all to bonsai design. The Japanese did not continue to copy the Chinese; they took what the Chinese had to offer and, using their imagination and skills, created their own bonsai based on what they see in their own land. If we are to progress in our chosen art, we to must evolve, develop, digress, deviate, exercise free thinking and adapt the best history has to offer and use examples in our own landscape on which to build"

Tom Zane

20-Dec-2005	#3
RonMartin(deceased) Bonsai nare-do-well Join Date: Jan-2003 Location: Summerville SC Country: USA USDA Zone: 8A AHS Heat Zone: 8 Posts: 4,653	"Imagination, we all have it, to some degree or the other. But in styling a bonsai we all too often don't call on our imagination and attempt to recreate a bonsai in the image of some basic bonsai icon, stoically following styling traditions that came from Japan some 50 years ago. These basic "rules", or principals, ARE important and ARE essential in getting on started on the road to creating good bonsai; but they are only the beginning of the journey, they are not the end all to bonsai design. The Japanese did not continue to copy the Chinese; they took what the Chinese had to offer and, using their imagination and skills, created their own bonsai based on what they see in their own land. If we are to progress in our chosen art, we to must evolve, develop, digress, deviate, exercise free thinking and adapt the best history has to offer and use examples in our own landscape on which to build" *Tom Zane*