Over the course of the last year various threads have popped up here and there that I personally feel are detrimental to the art of bonsai and how it is perceived by all who happens to stumble upon such threads. I thought I’d share my thoughts here by compiling my personal feelings on the matter in a single post.


A Little History First

Every since the very first person started trimming a potted plant in order to make it look like an idealized miniature tree, bonsai has been on a path to higher art. The Chinese refined the art form into miniature landscapes that were specially designed and arranged to be pleasing to the eye. The Japanese concentrated on single trees or single groups of trees in a pot and strove for perfection in every detail of the bonsai.

In Japan where this art was refined and perfected, every single detail was attended to from the actual bonsai to the pot, to the way they were displayed alone or with viewing stones or accents. What we so blatantly refer to as “rules” are actually guidelines perfected over many years of trial and error, more years than any of us will ever have available to make the same mistakes, more years of raw experience than the total experience of all the members here combined. Guidelines that if not followed make it difficult to create a bonsai or display that is pleasing to the eye.

Bonsai has always been an art form. Whenever we style a bonsai, whenever we wire, trim, shape, prune, chop, or pinch or bonsai it is with the same goal in mind that all those before us had. The simple undeniable goal of bettering our bonsai, bringing it a little closer to perfection, making it more artistic is why we bother at all.


Square Peg, Round Hole

Now there are some who have not reached the level yet of creating bonsai that are artistically sound, I myself fall into this category. However, a few people, instead of simply admitting that they fall short of this and that they are actively working to obtain it, they make excuses and try to justify the fact that they have not yet created bonsai.

These few people insist that their attempts should not be judged since they are happy with them. They insist that the mere act of growing a tree is all that matters and that bonsai is not art, but in fact just a hobby. They even go as far as to try and redefine the meaning of bonsai to suit their personal efforts. Some have even invented new names, hoping somehow to justify their efforts and gain acceptance for their sub-standard bonsai under another name than bonsai.

I am in total agreement that a person should be able to enjoy anything they wish to. If sticks in a bonsai pot is what makes them happy and they wish to advance no further, that’s perfectly all right. However, when they post these on a bonsai forum and attempt to justify the condition of such, they open themselves up for critique. Getting upset at people who actively pursuer the art of bonsai because they point out the flaws in their bonsai is non-productive at the very least.

Trying to rename bonsai and create new standards to justify their own sub-standard bonsai is simply avoiding the truth. They are only trying to cram a square peg into a round hole. Bonsai was defined as an art form long before any of us were born, long before our parents and grandparents were born, I hardy think it will be redefined by a couple people who haven’t one single, actual bonsai to show.

When changes are made to this art form, people who have proved themselves with artistic bonsai make them. Walter Pall is often mention in regards to his “Naturalistic” styling but it is not often mentioned how many bonsai he created before breaking into his own and redefining our vision of bonsai. In this art form, like all others, you must first learn how to do it before you can figure out how to change it.


Reinventing The Wheel

Automotive tires, perfect in function, impossible to reinvent. You can go on a tire forum and scream that you use square wheels and are perfectly happy, but don’t get upset when you are pounded with many reasons why your statement makes no sense.

Innovations are often made to tires, better material, longer lasting, smooth riding, etc. But the same basic principles still remain; trying to reinvent the wheel is such a silly idea that the term itself is used whenever someone tries the equivalent on any other idea.

As I mentioned above, bonsai has been invented already, redefined to a fault, there will always be room for some innovations, but to try and reinvent bonsai to suit your personal ability is a waste of both your time and those who you badger with your attempts to justify it.

Learn To Walk Before You Learn To Run

Seems everyone wants to take a shortcut. We often hear people dismissing the traditional “rules” saying that bonsai can exist without them. Then we are giving links to world-class bonsai that violates one rule or another. Trust me when I tell you that the artists that create these world-class bonsai never got that knowledgeable and talented by ignoring advice from ages past.

No matter what you try and accomplish in life, you must first learn the basics. Then you must master them before attempting to stray from them. Some of the greatest artist in the world served apprenticeships where they were forced to perform menial, basic tasks time after time until they perfected them. This is what forms the foundation to build on, without a foundation nothing can stand for long.


The Usual Arguments And Answers

As long as I enjoy what I’m doing. Quality don't matter.

True, no one has ever debated this, however if you show your attempts and/or start giving advice on how to style bonsai then you open yourself up for critique. The example of painter has often been used to defend this point. Painters, they say, are not all great artists, some just paint for pleasure and put their paintings in a closet. This is fine, but if they decide to start posting their work on artist forums and give advice on how to paint, I imagine that they would quickly be brought to task.

I just enjoy watching my bonsai - it’s my hobby.

Fine again. Enjoy yourself but please don’t invalidate those who strive for more than container plants.

I am not interested in creating art.

Again, perfectly fine. But be prepared to answer then why would you trim, wire, shape, and prune your plants. Also please be prepared to have them judged artistically when you show them, bonsai is a art, there are container gardening forums when art is not judged….wait I take that back, the design, pot, arrangement of plants, health, and overall appearance is in fact even judged in container gardening….well, there has to be somewhere where a plant in a pot can simply be that.

Who is anyone to say what art is or isn’t?


Your peers decide, the public decides. Artists know what it is. There are some “artists” that are cr@pping in mason jars and calling it art, that view is limited to them, not many others. There is no real difference between this and cr@pping in a pot. You can cr@p in a pot and call it bonsai till you are blue in the face, you can defend it to the death, you can rename it and call it feces bonsai, but in the end it’s still just cr@p in a pot. Enjoy it all you want, display it proudly in your backyard, but the minute you post it for public viewing it will be called cr@p in a pot.


Walter Pall created his own style, why can’t I?

You’re not Walter Pall.



In closing, as my dad used to say quite often, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I think all the striving people who are attempting to remake bonsai to suit their personal talent need to reevaluate their outlook and consider remaking themselves in order to understand the beauty, the art in bonsai. I am personally a long way from reaching a level I could call artistic, but damn it, I ain’t giving up and I refuse to be convinced that mediocrity is somehow acceptable. Bonsai is art, I am a bonsaist, and therefore I pursue art in bonsai.


Just my two cents worth,


Will Heath

Will,

That's more like ten bucks worth...well thought out,well written.

I'm cheap and lazy,so all I'll add is a penny's worth............................................I wonder if that's what they said about Grandma Moses.

andy

Will, and would appear to contradict. Elaboration required before discussion can continue...

Regards,

Chris.

Thanks Andy.



Will

Chris, how do these statements contradict?

I was about to write a response, but why even get involved?

I wonder if painters have this argument?

pootsie

Having gone through art school, I can say YES!!!

Oh, sure they do. I was reading about the history of impressionist and post-impressionist painting the other day. One of the big arguments were about the academic painting vs. modern painting. Works of the Impressionists (Monet, Van Gogh) and Expressionists (Gauguin, Cezanne) were looked down upon as unfinished, lacking proper detail and laizy.

Academic painters paid a lot of attention to details, design principles and the rules of academic painting.

Sounds familiar?