Juno

To echo BonsaiAl's original post, I think that the line between Art and Craft in bonsai is hard to determine but I'm going to try to show where my 'line' is. For me, the rules of bonsai are guidelines that can be applied to any tree, regardless of species. Some rules apply more to certain types of tree, or to specific species, so you can pick and choose those rules. I think you cross the line into Art when you look at an individual tree after thinking about the rules and ask "What style of tree will you be?" and "How will I try to show your beauty as best I can?". Seeing how someone has applied those rules to an individual tree and then gone beyond them to allow the tree to speak for itself is to see the art in a tree. Better yet to see a tree and "Wow!" it's so lovely that you don't care how it was done! There will be evidence of the rules in there if you look closely but the artist has created a vision which goes beyond a technical exercise. If anyone has seen any of Tony Tickle's trees - he's a UK bonsai artist - he uses the rules to create 'scale' in a tree, ie if the proportions are right the tree will look more like a tree in nature. Talent goes beyond a single benchmark but it's a good one to keep in mind.
Just my two penn'orth,
regards
Janice