Because Al asked

RonMartin(deceased)

Will your comment got me to thinking. That might be a dangerous thing ;o)
But both you and Carl bring up an interesting point. Hope neither of you get upset as this is only a question. Nothing more.
Zhao is arguably one of the most respected artists in China. His reputation is spotless. His skill unsurpassed. In the area of bonsai he is in anyway. I would imagine that it would be hard to find some one in bonsai ( major stream bonsai anyway) that does not know his name. The word genus is used universally to describe him.
Now when a man like this comes calling just how much influence do you think he has on the material presented.
I get the feeling that most people know him through his book. Guess you could say that they have seen his work. His book is so well written that I would imagine most of us have at least some inkling of what his philosophy is As far as bonsai is concerned anyway.
How often do you suppose that when he shows up is there crappy material there. How many times has the club etc. screwed up.
When he is town to do his thing it is usually big news. This is good for the local vendors. How many time do you suppose that the local vendors have stocked up on pots instead of marble slabs.
So if he shows up just how many people have screwed up in order to dump the wrong material on him.
I think that this is a fair question worthy of discussion.I might be the only one that thinks that but that is how it goes.
How about it. Any thoughts on this.

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Attila

It's a little late for the above in this tread, but this is a golden statement. I always felt this instinctively, but never consciously thought about the cause of the limitations that a pot has on a landscape.

Thank you Fish for this very clever comment!

Attila

Will_Heath

The curse of demos is having to work with what the club purchased which is directly related to their budget and the skill of the person sent to select the stock.

While it is true that the more talented a person is the more likely they are to be able to make use of substandard material, in fact, I would argue that it takes less skill to work on a terrific piece of stock than it does to work on a bad piece.

However I find it slightly distasteful to blame all poor outcomes on the stock. What may have crippled one master could have been used to a better end by another.

I would speculate that it is not the stock or the master alone that makes a masterpiece but a perfect marriage between the two. If one or the other fail, they both do because the two are connected.

Back to the thought...if the standard of stock at workshops is lower than a person is used to working with, then it is to be expected that a lower quality bonsai will be the result. The fact is that persons name is still attached to it....one of the downfalls of kicking out workshop trees.

Just my half cents worth...


Will

RonMartin(deceased)

That is no half cent comment my friend ;o)

Carl_Bergstrom

My guess would be that this is pretty common, both when clubs supply the material and when people supply "bring your own" material. Brook probably gets it worse than most, because I've gotta admit if you asked me to come up with adequate material for Brook to use in making a forest, I'd be hard pressed to do so in less than a week or for less than a few hundred dollars, excluding the tray. Many of the members here have very nice potensai or rough-styled material sitting around, but few of us have a enough good pieces of the same species and style sitting around to make a whole forest from scratch.

My sense is that if you're going to pay Brook the respect he deserves, you have to show up with something more than six 1" trunk import Chinese elm seedlings and a big round pot. You'd best have a marble tray (assuming you are aiming for land-and-water) or at least a slab, and you'd best have a #1 tree, a #2 tree, and a selection of smaller trees. And it really is about respect. You wouldn't invite Evnegy Kissin to town and then ask him to play on hundred-dollar Casio keyboard from Walmart. Why do people invite Brook Zhao to town and expect him to work with a half-dozen seedlings from Home Depot?

(I dealt with this myself when Brook came to town 18 months ago. I had planned to be away, but ended up cancelling my trip at the last minute. There was extra space in the workshop that became available the day before. What to do? I decided to pass on it, and simply participate as a silent observer. In retrospect, definitely the right decision. Brook was probably also relieved not to have to deal with a mica tray from my garage and six seedlings from my growing bed).

Best regards,
Carl

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In love with trees