Treebeard

What bonsai is: A bonsai is a small tree in a pot that resembles a big tree in the ground, and stirs emotion in ME first and the viewer second. This emotion could be tranquility, peace, discord, discomfort, wonder, awe and so on. The mechanics of how this emotion is evoked are secondary to the end result. The tricks employed and conventions followed are merely a means to an end. I don't absorb artistry readily so studying art is of little help to me, what is of much greater help to me is trial and error and visual comparison. By visual comparison I mean studying pictures of bonsai I like and dislike and trying to figure out why I like the ones I do and what it is about the actual look of the tree that makes me like or dislike it. Whatever visual technique works once gets recycled and used again, what doesn't work is put to ones side to be perhaps used in a different configuration or discarded completely.

I have a great love of the English countryside and in particular my own locality, and my bonsai must reflect this. I am aware of the origins of bonsai and respect those origins, but I want my own bonsai to resembe my local trees as much as possible and not trees from half way round the world.

Bonsai is a source of great frustration for me. Frustration at the timescales involved (sigline notwithstanding). Frustration at the difficulty in imposing emperical analysis on something that grows by a whim of nature. Frustration at having a good idea and seeing it fall flat when I go outside with pruners akimbo.

I post my work here to get a kick out of the praise first and advice second. If advice is given I will sometimes follow it, but only if I can see the whys and wherefores and it makes sense to me. I am willing to learn but unless I fully understand the advice there's no point in following it for me. I will not take advice just because it is the consensus view. I also post my work to give encouragement to others (I allow myself an altruistic motive here because I have come clean about getting kicks).

I want to follow my own path through bonsai, and expect others to respect that. What does it matter to Tom, Dick or Harry how I get there as long as I get there? It doesn't matter to me if there is a quicker route. I do not think this is incompatible with my earlier statement that the end result is what matters.

What bonsai isn't: Bonsai is not about propagation or cultivating seedlings. I leave that to others who are vastly better at it than I am. Bonsai isn't about the illusion of age. A slender young tree in a shallow pot can evoke as much wonder and emotion as a gnarly old centurion in a rugged pot. Bonsai is not about putting a seedling in a bonsai pot and calling it bonsai. Can't think of much more that bonsai isn't, but I'm sure I'll think of soething after I click submit.

Conclusion: I've said several quite personal things here in the hope that I can find some common ground with others who I may have crossed swords with in the past.

Regards,

Chris.

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"Do not be hasty, that is my motto"
-JRR Tolkien, The Two Towers.
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