Carl_Bergstrom

An offhand remark that I made today got me thinking about some of our recent discussions about bonsai and art in the West.

There is a curious thing about bonsai in the West. It is art, but yet here we tend not to really appreciate the art of bonsai unless we also practice it. I'm not say that people don't enjoy walking through a bonsai show for the "first time," I am just saying that there are few people who are obsessed with bonsai but don't actually grow trees. Just take this forum for example - I think every active member of this forum grows trees herself or himself.

In bonsai one gets so used to this being the state of affairs that it hardly seems remarkable. But art decidedly need not be this way. Take classical music. Tens or hundreds of thousands of people - maybe even millions - are passionate about classical music. What fraction of them actually play? A half? A tenth? Not 99 percent, that is for certain! Ditto jazz. Plenty of people are obsessed with sculpture, yet never have held a chisel. Art-house film enthusiasts are some of the most knowledgable and enthusiastic audiences of any art form I know, and yet these folks quite rarely act or direct or produce or write themselves.

So what is going on with bonsai? Is it this way in Japan as well? (I very much doubt it, though perhaps I am wrong - can anyone tell me?) Is it so new to the West that we don't have the culturally literate population present to enjoy this artform irrespective of practicing it? Is it because there is something different about bonsai - one cannot collect with also participating in creation? Why do so many people - myself included - love classical and read about it and discuss it and argue about it and attend performances and so forth, without ever displaying a whit of talent at that art form? Why do we sometimes almost think that the value of an opinion is proporational to the quality of trees produced by its bearer? (A corresponding attitude would pull the rug out from under just about all film, painting, and music critics!)

I don't have any easy answers here. I suppose if I did, I wouldn't be asking.

Looking forward to your responses,
Carl aka Old Mister Crow

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In love with trees

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