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bonsai is not my hobby
Join Date: Oct-2001
Location: Egling, south of Munich
Country: Germany
Posts: 1,440
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'I think it really boils down to a fact that in America it is not really possible for someone to grow bonsai on a professional level in the same way it is done in Europe or Japan and still make a decent living.'
Vance,
what you call a fact is a myth. I don't know about Japan really. But we are being told that the big names are multi-millionaires. They often behave like this anyway.
I know very well about Europe. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE IN EUROPE TO MAKE A DECENT LIVING FROM BONSAI AS AN ARTFORM. All the big names in Europe either have some other source of income, are somehow independent rich, or have some sort of a bonsai center which is really a big shop and has nothing to do with bonsai as artform. The rest are very poor, and I mean just about starving. Believe me, I know them all.
I also have spent more than one full year together on bonsi trips in America by now. From that I should have a decent overview. It is much easier to make a decent living from bonsai as artform in America compared to Europe, but it is by no means easy compared to other professions. If you want to make decent money you have to produce and do what your customers want and not necessarily what you want. It requires a certain degree of prostitution here and there.
I know that I could make some sort of a somehow decent living in bonsai in America. But there is no way that I could do this in Europe. By that I mean if I did what I am doing, which is what I believe in.
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