Originally Posted by Vance Wood

If anyone here had taken the time to read the rules of the contest you would realize that attribution was not an issue, except as to where the tree came from; Europe or North America. It seems to me this is another exercise in straining at a Nat and swallowing a camel.

Originally Posted by Vance Wood

If anyone here had taken the time to read the rules of the contest you would realize that attribution was not an issue, except as to where the tree came from; Europe or North America. It seems to me this is another exercise in straining at a Nat and swallowing a camel.

Originally Posted by Will Heath

Chris Johnston in his usual, tired vendetta to discredit AoB and myself has been tripping all over himself lately in his rush to “expose” what he perceives as a attempt to alter the results of the current contest at AoB. Meanwhile, the same old folks over at BT have, of course, jumped on the bandwagon seeing the chance to trash talk AoB and myself once again. Although I can understand that the forum there gets lots of activity whenever they start a “Will Heath” thread, I have to think that by now most people are catching on to their usual and often overused feeding frenzy mentality.

Let’s break down the actual facts here first and then we will dissect some of the comments that were made over at BonsaiTalk and reveal them for what they truly are. Below is a time-line of the activities to date.

I wrote an article “Ownership and Artistic Credit in Bonsai” in which I used two photographs to illustrate it.

I chose these two particular photographs because both trees were owned by people who acknowledged the previous artists and/or any other artists who had a hand in styling the tree. The premise of my article was that credit should be given to styling artists, so these pictures perfectly illustrated my point.

I personally emailed the owners of both trees and asked for permission to use the photographs in my article. Even though the pictures were already at AoB, AoB policy is to always obtain separate permissions, as we believe copyright should always remain with the photographer and not automatically assumed by the forum. Both people emailed me back with expressed permission to use the photographs in the article.

The article was completed and posted at AoB in the Eristic section where it created four pages of discussion before Chris Johnston noticed that the first picture was from a student of Boon’s and which was also in the current contest. Chris posted such stating that he felt the contest was compromised because (since we always give full credit for pictures at AoB) the world would now know who the owner was of this tree in our blind contest.

Chris then ran around like a town crier on too much caffeine and told everyone he could, including fellow Boon students that the contest was now somehow invalid, damaged, unable to be judged fairly, and so on. This was picked up at BonsaiTalk by John Vonsgardens , who for some unknown reason felt that this personally involved him in some unimaginable manner. Since it involved myself (and hence a high possibility of a high post count thread) they have carried it on, even though it does more harm to the contest than my article, or maybe because it does.

We deleted the posts concerning the contest at AoB because they were actually causing more attention to the photograph then the article did. In his haste to “expose” an imagined fault, Chris became guiltier of “swaying” the contest then the article was itself!

BonsaiTalk, by allowing such a discussion about a perceived flaw in the contest has only created more attention to the very thing they are saying should not have been drawn attention to.

The above are the facts as they happened. However, they are not all the facts, let’s look at the total picture now and see what Chris, John, and BonsaiTalk has failed to mention.

Both pictures in the article are of trees currently in the contest. Chris jumped on the one he knew from being a student of Boon’s, but never even noticed the other. He knew it personally, which is why he recognized it, which brings me to the next point….

While the contest is technically blind, let’s not fool ourselves, most likely over 75% of the trees in the contest are well known by many and certainly by the judges, they are world class trees from world class artists, many are already in galleries and profiles at AoB, many more are on other forums, in books, in magazines, etc. One of the contest entries is a tree that is featured on the masthead on the front page of AoB. In this small community, a totally blind contest is impossible.

Chances are most people would never even have placed the trees shown in the article as contest trees, there are over 190 entries in the contest, unless you know a tree personally, you won’t notice it.

Chris Johnston and John Vonsgardens are actually guilty of exposing a name from a contest tree, had they never said anything, few would have noticed, but by bringing so much light on to the subject, they actually exposed it more than I ever could of…. let’s look at some other facts…

Neither tree illustrating the article was mentioned in the article at all. Not a single word was said in the article about either tree, the pictures stood alone without personal comment. They were no mention of them as being examples, and they were not discussed in the thread either. I knew they were contest trees, but like I said, so are many others already featured at AoB, on other forums, or in personal blogs…. what I did was write an article and I purposely refrained from discussing the trees in anyway shape or form.

Another interesting fact is that if one were to look at my other articles at AoB and/or KoB, they would find trees used as examples that are in the current contest as well, also giving credit to the owners. Should we find every article on the web, every article in newsletters, every article in magazines, every book on bonsai and destroy them all lest they give out the owner’s name of a contest entry?

I will reveal one important secret for those who love such things, the biggest critics of this photo/contest/article, namely John Vonsgardens, Chris Johnston (BonsaiKC), Joanie, wen, libby, Marka, and some others ...

Not one of them has a entry in the contest, the slight on my part, real or imagined, does not affect them in any way, shape, or form.

Now who was talking about agendas?





Now let’s take a look at BonsaiTalk and what the usual handful of people are spreading around in obvious attempts to discredit another forum’s contest, the editors at AoB, and myself.


John Vonsgardens (My responses in red)

“My concern is that this article by none other than Mr. Eristic, Will Heath, in the "Eristic" section has tainted the competition. How so? The tree in question a very nice Japanese White Pine was submitted, was placed for judging, and now because of who was involved with the project, the owner and those who have worked with her in developing the tree was exposed in the article. While this was "bad enough", when posts were made by those who were concerned that this had happened, their posts were immediately removed from the thread. I have this directly from those involved, in personal conversation."

Frankly I am saddened to see these words from him.

Tainted? In what way? Please read my words above, posts like yours draw more attention to the photo than the article itself. This is why the posts concerning the photo and not the topic of the article were removed.

"Editorial repression, based on a view expressed that is counter to that of the editors, is the lowest form of intimidation. It continues to demonstrate a flaw of character, maybe not for the entire competition and those who have put a great deal of effort in to organizing it, but to the core of the editorial process. I realize I will probably (hopefully?) be removed from the AOB mailing list for posting this, but that is OK."

Again, the posts were removed to prevent them from doing exactly what they accused the article of. No editorial repression, just doing exactly what you and others asked to be done to the article itself, why do you claim repression when it is someone else, but demand the same when it is me? As to your AoB membership, sorry, you’re still a member, however you can request to be removed at anytime.

"Maybe the tree's picture wasn't submitted properly, maybe proper credit (in the contest's eyes) wasn't given to an annonymous tree grower, to Boon and to Mike Hagedorn, I haven't seen the submission. But the fact that the "anonymous" submission was outed (and I and you can recognize many of the trees submitted) and the tree is still shown among the trees submitted for judging, suggests that this was just another opportunity to bully someone who will not be allowed to reply”.

You yourself say that you can recognize many of the trees submitted, so what exactly makes this one special? As to “opportunity to bully someone who will not be allowed to reply” you posted the above words at BonsaiTalk, where I am not allowed to reply….isn’t that a wee bit hypercritical?

"I settled for a private apology to Janet Roth and Boon, and Michael Hagedorn who have been placed rather cagily in an uncomfortable position by indirect damning. I will drop this when there is a public apology from AOB's editorial staff to Janet, Boon and Michael. If those who write articles, OK when Mr. heath, can ever produce trees as beautiful as Janet Roth's, then I will take them seriously. Discrediting the good work of others is very similar to plagarism- a question of character- this damns all who facilitate it."

You settled for a private apology? I’m sorry, are you representing the entrant, were you wronged? You can continue this until you are blue in the face, when we deal with this perceived slight (see above words of mine) you will not be involved in any way shape or form.

Joanie said (My responses in red)

”Aside from that, the premise of the article is simple minded twaddle….”

And then she follows later with...

Nice try, but no dice. It remains a bad decision, and not pulling the article or the photo of the tree after complaints (but removing the complaining posts) remains a bad decision also. There was absolutely no reason to keep the article and photo up, once it was clear that by doing so it would taint the legitimacy of the contest.

It does not take a great mind to realize that your post is actually doing more to "taint the legitimacy of the contest" than my "simple minded twaddle" the difference is, I can grasp the concept.

Thanks for the kind words Joanie, but I think we will run our own forum and contest, taking advice from a moderator on another forum engaged in such talk seems somehow, well, counter-productive...


John Quinn said (My responses in red)

“Furthermore, the staff at AOB has apparently misused the image in violation of the specific permission granted by the owner when submitting the picture. I have highlighted a selection from their own rules.”

John, this is an example of why people shouldn’t talk about subjects of which they have no knowledge. I asked for and received separate permission to use the photos.


Someone posting under the assumed name of Wen said (My responses in red)

“Simply stating the tree was not discussed in the article, which contains both the picture and citation attributing ownership, or lauding the integrity of the judges is not enough to absolve. In my mind the integrity of the contest is in question, since the rules of the contest have been broken by an organizer.”

Which rules were broken exactly? The answer is no rules were broken. Like it or not this is a AoB contest, I know the rules very well, I should, I wrote them. I went with public opinion on a blind contest, and this entry is as blind as the others. Again, it is words like yours that are drawing undue attention to the picture and entry, not mine.

Matt, the admin at BonsaiTalk made the most reasonable posts of all, his first post kept to the facts and did not assume anything. He stated the facts without bias as he knew them. He earned my respect on that post.

In his second post he states, "By the way, I think it was equally poor judgement to choose another entry, #NA076, to decorate the homepage of the artofbonsai.org site while the judging is going on! Again I have no idea who is responsible for that, but it's unfortunate. If the images were ALL shown in rotation, that would be acceptable, but to single out one image for special treatment during the judging is discriminatory.

One thing is for sure, there are some fine trees in this contest!"

We do rotate trees on our masthead, this particular tree was there before the contest begun, it recieved no special treatment. As I said above, there are world class trees posted everywhere, published everywhere, if we demanded that no trees can be entered that are anywhere else, we'd have maybe six enteries... I do agree with Matt on one thing... there are some fine trees in the contest!

However Matt, by "exposing" another entry, are you not guilty of the same actions I am being accused of? What would be the difference if you said hey look entry 3001 is on the cover of Bonsai Today issue #4002? Or if you said, hey Will's article on Three Dimensional Bonsai features a tree in the contest?

By the way Matt, I noticed one of the entries is in your gallery and the name of the entrant is there as well, why hasn't this been taken down, removed, deleted? Oh my God, the contest is ruined!!!!

Please...




Will Heath


(Final Note: Proper explanations and/or apologies have been given to those actually involved. If you never recieved one, it did not involve you.)