I remember when I first started with bonsai, I was very impatient (of course) and wanted to see design changes in the span of weeks or days. I can remember wanting to have a "sumo" trident maple, from a cutting, in about 2 years (huge laugh). Now I see 5 years as a blink in time. My whole concept of time has changed and I see design efforts spread out over 1 or 2 decades and have no problem with that.

Does anyone else have the same experience? Has your time perception changed over the years?

Kind regards,
Andy Rutledge
www.bonsai365.com/ :: living bonsai every day
zone 8, Texas

Yes Andy, not only has bonsai influenced my perception of time but age has as well. The years are flying by now. But on the bright side it makes development in my trees seem to come much more quickly.

Bob O

P.S. Gotta have a pic- Crepe Myrtle, started in May (really) from bare trunk.

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Very definitely I remember making a conscious decision to leave a branch on a tree for two years before cutting it. I think that this was the first time in my life that I looked beyond dinner.
Bonsai has definitely slowed my perceptions and expectations down.

Glenn

Hi Andy,

I find that what is interesting is that I seem to exist in two very different relationships with time now: Everyday American time, driven by school, television, the daily news, family needs, bill-paying, etc., etc. and Bonsai time, driven by the seasons, the gradual changes I see in my trees, the contemplation I experience watering my trees, etc. I suspect that in times past, this second relationship with time was much more important in people's lives and was the source of understandings, values, qualities of character that are now on the wane. Speaking for myself, I believe that this repositioning of myself with time has, at least up to now, been alot more important to my own appreciation of bonsai than the many issues regarding artistic merit that I've seen debated with such fervor within our little community.

For a long time, I've felt that the general contempt that the bonsai cogniscenti have for the age of trees is very mistaken. For me, the ages of trees and their histories is an area of great fascination and significance. Well, wonder and awe as well. I think that to tell a newcomer that the ages and histories of trees is something that somebody truly in the know regards as inconsequential is as good an example of finding the emperor without clothes as anything I know of in Bonsailand.

Thanks for your thought-provoking comments.

Fred

Me? I'm just glad I got into it young

I thought you guys were artists! Philosophers, the lot of you!

Well, I haven't been in bonsai long, but I find myself thinking more about life in the long run now that I'm attempting to create art that probably won't be "finished" until I'm out of college; and even more probably until I'm in my mid 30's.

Andy,
Doing bonsai for a number of years now has given me the awareness that Bonsai is a "performance art", perhaps related to acting, singing, dancing etc.
I had previously thought of it as "sculpture'", but now, being more experienced, I realize it is a performance art, the main difference being that the time moves extremely slowly.......when you place your tree in a show, for instance, you've "primped" it up to look good for that moment, but it is constantly changing into something different from its current appearance....therefor the "performance" aspect of bonsai.
Hope I've made myself clear.
Robert......in Sta.Cruz

Andy ... SOOOO TRUE! I am far from finishing my own Bonsai education, probably never will. But I can remember when I thought one of the differences between a newbie and a Master was the time it took them to 'do' the tree. Now I know better. Sure a Master 'could' bring a tree to show quicker than I, but not that much quicker on the average. The difference is in the eye, the ability and in the art, the vision to see into the future and bring the tree to where it and the artist want it to go.

The biggest difference in my own thinking is shown in my big trident. I am talking about several years to get the root grafts in place and also years to develop the branches. I do not think I could think this way 18 months ago. I would see a tree needing time (as many do) and I would dismiss it as bad material... even I have learned something!

Jay

Robert, thanks for a totally new thought I've never seen expressed before. Fascinating idea!

Fred

Fred - you raised a provacative point on your watering thread as well. I see some parallels between this thread and yours... The more time I spend in bonsai - the more I realize it is about TIME.

My interpretation of the comments in both threads is that the bonsai enthusiast grows as much as their trees. I know what originally "hooked" me about bonsai - cute little trees in pretty pots certainly is not where I am now - striving to create really good little trees - shohins - the "little" part is still intact. Most of them are in grow pots however - the pretty pots are on a shelf unused!

I had the wonderful opportunity recently to see one of our other forum member's (Robert from Santa Cruz) trees . I think he has been "doing" bonsai well over 30 years. (Robert - how long has it been?) It really gave me that time perspective that I think we are talking about in this thread. I saw trees that he had nurtured for 20 plus years - with wonderful results. When I got home and looked at mine - most less that 3 years along - well. I recognized I needed to grow more patience along with bonsai!