okay, i have been biting my tongue for a while now, but i can't stand back and watch someone trashing people!!!
will, what gives? ever since you started our last contest, you have portrayed yourself in a manner that can only be described as snobbish!!! get off your high horse long enough to see that comments like you've made here and other places are the reason that people become offended enough not to want to participate. for example,
"
Like a painter, if you're good the end result of bonsai is indeed art, even though you may not see it or believe it. OH yes, if you're bad the end result is crap in a pot, even if you don't see or believe it.
Thanks smoke, please do not let a few comments from the backyarders and such stop you from posting. Since they don't want to be in this discussion, even though they made sure they were, maybe I can learn something here in spite of them."
you may disagree with the reasons people post, but calling fred and virtuald "backyarders", as if to say that their amatuer views don't matter, what the hell is that? aren't we all amatuers? or do you now equate yourself with the masters? and as far as "crap in a pot" which you so subtley called my white pine in this thread,
http://forum.bonsaitalk.com/showpos...17&postcount=16, i have to say that although we may not live up to your almighty standards and ability, most of us are here to learn how to learn from the crap in a pot and maybe even produce a good bonsai some day. most of us are hobbyists, nothing more than "backyarders", but to use terms like that to talk down to us is
unacceptable, period.
smoke, i am sorry to have used your thread for a response other than what was intended, my response to it is this:
bonsai, like any other art form (as referred to here), is whatever the artist makes it. there are standards in place to guide us to what is assumed to be correct for bonsai, but rules are made to be broken, improved upon. for example, i have a common geranium in my gallery, i have maintained it at its current height for about two years and been able to minimize the size of the pot it was in drastically. it is by no means a great bonsai the likes of walter, nick lenz, and others, but it is a bonsai. is this plant typically used? no, but does that make it less of a bonsai? is it less of a bonsai because i have not wired it? i have tried to depict it in an artistic fashion and had to care for it like any other plant used for bonsai (ie:root pruning, pruning, watering, fertilizing, etc.) i hope this example answers at least part of your question.
chris