eighten

Al, your posts in this thread are great except that you are mainly talking about design, not artistry. Sure, good design is necessary for good art, and really good design sometimes is art on its own. When you combine good design, ideas, and emotion in a creative and compelling way, you are using your "artistry."
That said, I think learning good design while thinking about the artistic power of your designs will likely result in something artistic without learning any additional ideas about art. I've heard it said that once you understand what makes a perfect design, understanding art in general comes naturally. I think there is evidence for and against that idea on this forum. Design is very, very important, and it is sometimes so creatively original that it says something revolutionary about the way that things can look to us and is thus art. Otherwise, calling design art is like installing a window in the perfect spot on your wall and calling it art. Design is a craft, a science that every artist should be somehow skilled in (all good scientists are creative, believe me).

P.S. A really good design usually has some of that art stuff to it as well. I prefer to say that design and art are so closely related that good design requires a little art and good art requires a lot of design, but many say design is actually just a part of art that we try to seperate and cannot entirely, and you can come up with the other arguments. All in all, this is about semantics and definitions only. My point is that what Al is talking about is a fatally incomplete description of ANY sort of art, but a good and important description of the way in which the basic concepts and elements of design apply to bonsai.

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~john, Midwestern U.S. zone 4a