Art may be the ultimate goal in the bonasi endeavor but I don't really think about it too often. If someone where to ask me, I wouldn't call myself a bonsai artist. I'd say something like, I grow bonsai.
Bonsai training and growing is a combination of expessing nature through art, using pruning, grafting and growing techniques, and a good knowledge of horticulture to keep the trees healthy. All of these things are interdependent on one another and I wouldn't necessarily say one is more important than the the others.
I grow bonsai for the creative aspect of it. I have a need to do that for some odd reason and if I'm going to do it, why not with small trees in pots? If someone else gets a kick out of it that's cool but it certainly isn't my goal.
As for entering shows. Yeah, I'd do it if there were some close by, but I wouldn't pack them up in the van to drive hundreds of miles to a show and sleep in an overpriced hotel room and eat greasy restaurant food for the weekend. Just so my trees can be critiqued by a non bonsai person? You've got to be kidding! I can get plenty of that at home anyway. Of coarse, that's just the way I am. I wouldn't drive a hundred miles to see Elvis either. He's still alive you know.
Tony