bonsaiTALK Community - View Single Post - Smoke and Mirrors

Last night I did a little research on how a person with absolutely no knowledge of bonsai reacts to artistic vs. mediocre bonsai.
The subject involved was my father, no artistic education, and no refined taste for bonsai.

I showed him pictures from the book Classical Bonsai of Japan, featuring bonsai as japanese national treasures, and I mixed them with pictures of bonsai from other books (no need to mention titles) featuring average or less than average bonsai.

It was a no-contest, or a bloodbath if you will, the Japanese masterpieces won by Knock Out.

The artistic bonsai clearly took all the appreciation of the non-initiated.
I was surprised to see that amongs the Japanese Masterpieces, my father preferred the more artistic, sculpture-like trees, such as junipers showing some nice deadwood. This was a shocker, I thought that only we afficionados like those things.

The point of this little exercise reinforces the leading thought of this thread: I is worth pursuing the artistic aspect of bonsai, unless we chose to end up on a dead-end street. The future is clearly brighter for our hobby if we make a commitment to look at our trees as works of art.

Smoke, thanks from bringing some much needed energy to this forum.

Attila

2-Dec-2004	#7
Attila Attila Soos Join Date: Jan-2002 Location: Los Angeles, California Country: USA Posts: 1,924	Last night I did a little research on how a person with absolutely no knowledge of bonsai reacts to artistic vs. mediocre bonsai. The subject involved was my father, no artistic education, and no refined taste for bonsai. I showed him pictures from the book Classical Bonsai of Japan, featuring bonsai as japanese national treasures, and I mixed them with pictures of bonsai from other books (no need to mention titles) featuring average or less than average bonsai. It was a no-contest, or a bloodbath if you will, the Japanese masterpieces won by Knock Out. The artistic bonsai clearly took all the appreciation of the non-initiated. I was surprised to see that amongs the Japanese Masterpieces, my father preferred the more artistic, sculpture-like trees, such as junipers showing some nice deadwood. This was a shocker, I thought that only we afficionados like those things. The point of this little exercise reinforces the leading thought of this thread: I is worth pursuing the artistic aspect of bonsai, unless we chose to end up on a dead-end street. The future is clearly brighter for our hobby if we make a commitment to look at our trees as works of art. Smoke, thanks from bringing some much needed energy to this forum. Attila