FredL

Ron, for what it's worth, I agree with you on this issue. Art appreciation is simply not where it's at for me. Yes, I like paintings by Claude Monet, houses by Frank Lloyd Wright and music by JS Bach, but I'm clueless as to what they have in common with great examples of Bonsai. And I have little in the way of intention to do any thing about this sad deficiency.

The thing is, I'd lay odds that this is also the case with most of the men (and the few women) that most of us would be willing to grant the title of "Bonsai Master" to. I'm sure that showing what Bonsai has in common with great Western Art makes for great class content for upper class courses in Art Appreciation in prestigious Eastern Universities but I'll bet it's pretty close to irrrelevant for someone who wants to take up a Bonsai apprenticeship in Japan or even with our own Walter Pall.

Personally, I think I got far more to prepare me for Bonsai appreciation with the time I spent around treeline in the Montana Rockies with the US Forest Service than I did in my Art, Music and Literature course at Dear Old Rutgers.

As I spend more and more time reading and thinking about the "Bonsai as Art" discussion I become increasingly convinced of its irrelevance to the Bonsai Experince that I value. I find myself becoming increasingly attatched to my own little flock of trees and increasingly fond of Bonsai as the basis of a world wide community of friends and creators of a very unique form of expression making a unique contribution of value to the world. I don't find much contribution being made to my experience by the convoluted and strained effort to portray Bonsai as another element in the great story of Western Art. Even with the modern notion that Bonsai now "Belongs to the World, not just Japan".

Well, I get plenty of evidence that I'm just a little out of step with "nomal", so why not where it comes to Bonsai, also. It's my opinion and I'm afraid I'm stuck with it!

Fred