Old Olive, new Sara pot

mike_p

I ordered this custom made pot from Sara Rayner, last summer. Yesterday it arrived, and today I put my olive named Simon into it. The name is a riddle and the answer is a famous landmark in the Los Angeles area.
This is one of my favorite power tool carving jobs, done about 8-10 years ago. Height from table is 30 inches.

Attached Images

	5_olive.jpg (61.5 KB, 275 views)
	4_olive.jpg (68.7 KB, 99 views)

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jhill

Hi Mike,
Simon looks great!! So does Sara's pot.

Regards
John

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jeremy_norbury

Wonderful - especially the tree...

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mike_p

Hi Guys, thanks for your kind words.

Mike

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Nature is perfect.
Man's attempts to improve nature,
Are imperfect.
MP@BBB Studio

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jemmick

Mike .
Great looking pot and a wonderful choise for this tree!!! Ijust gotta break dowm and get a few of these wonderful pots!
Regards

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Jonathan

Bonsainut

Mike p,
You really are the bonsai termite aren't you. Show us your licence plate.
\
Good work.

I have some olive stumps about 16 inches caliper if you are itchin for a carve!!

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Lethal Use of Farce

bonsaial1

My caveat: Before anyone thinks that I like to cap on all of Mikes work, I do so as an alternative opinion. I respect everything Mike does, and am gratefull that Mike has so many unique bonsai for us to enjoy and throughly discuss for the betterment of bonsai education.

This tree is full of so much of the new buzzword here at bonsaiTALK; Conflict. As a wooden sculpture I am captivated. As a bonsai I am confused. There is much going on within this piece of work. As an artistic piece, the first thing that comes to mind as I hear from everyone is that is this tree speaking to me. I am not sure. If it is, it may be wondering the same thing as I am. "How did my t-shirt get all twisted up"

I ask the question, what provoked this tree to suddenly start spinning violently. Count the turns! This thing was spinning on a drill, and symetrically!

Mike did this carving 8 or 9 years ago. I wonder if given a clean tree he might do the same thing over.That would be the time period for some of the Kimura art hitting the USA? Was he captivated by something Kevin Willson did? It has some of the same look. I did the same thing to an olive in 1986. I started carving on a jinned top and tried to invoke a twisted tortured image. After the carving was done, I began to question why the tree would suddenly start spiraling. I could not come up with a feasible answer except that I wanted to carve a spiral in it so I could see if I could do it, and it looked cool. (The tree is in the test area.)

As an art form, bonsai is seen by bonsai artists and regular viewers. Much like a flowering bonsai at a public show and deadwood bonsai, the tree does not have to be in the best condition as a true bonsai. Those kinds of viewers see bonsai as something different, almost a curiosity. Bonsai artist look at the work much differently. We ask questions. Why would that tree do that? What happend to the foliage up there? Did it spin right off! We don't always just view the tree for the trees sake. We need more.

This tree is in conflict. There is no doubt about that. Do we need to rationalize everything about bonsai? Should we just go with the flow and commend the job at carving and excuse the conflict? Or do we ask the serious questions and look for answers?

I can't just say I like it. There is to much going on and nothing stands out to cause me to ignore the conflict. The eye catcher is the deadwood. There is no doubt about that. It is also the confliction, there is no doubt about that either.

Other views?
Bonsai-al

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bonsaial1

What if the jins were treated more naturaly like insect damage? What if the were a little shorter, not so dominate, and still hinted of the spiral?

It might look like this..

Attached Images

virtualofmike.JPG (41.3 KB, 104 views)

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Carl_Bergstrom

Hi Mike,

Chocolate sauce on suishi.

I like 'em both, a lot, but together....

Cheers,
Carl

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