Walter_Pall

Dan said: "American bonsai is still in its infancy, and that is why its status is lower than for other regions or the world"

Dan,

you may not be fully aware of recent bonsai history in the western world.
I can only speak about Europe here.

While there was somehting that could be called bonsai trend in Great Britain already at around 1960 it took until the beginnig of the eighties to have something similar in Germany. In other countries it came even later.

As to the artistic side: up to the late eighties Great Britain was leading the bonsai world in Europe by far. Around the end of the eighties Germay cought up a lot. Italy was not on the bonsai map really!!! Belgium and the Netherlands became very strong. Around the mid nineties Italy started with a phantastic rise out of nothing. Spain was on the map with very good results all of a sudden. Sorry for leaving out some nations.

So to be accepted as a nation of bonsai artists has very littel to do with the time that was available. If the time span of doing it were important clearly America must be the leading nation in the west, followed by Great Britain. This is simply not the case at all.

So American bonsai is not in it's infancy at all compared to other countries timewise. But I agree that one could argue that it is art-wise in some respects.

Enough to make new enemies?

Walter Pall