Is it the Art of Bonsai, or Bonsai Art?

bonsaial1

Very good Behr. I am pleased with this response. Yet somehow there is still something missing. All three of the analogies are entertaining and are very well written. The only trouble is that they still have to do with the same two things. Display or Photo. For some reason everyone seems to think I wish to diminish the fact that Carl has produced a very acceptable accent plant on its own. I do not. I do not wish to diminish the fact that there can be two or even five ideals that can be artistic at the same time.

Maybe I should be more succinct:for the rest of us...

*Iron the backdrop
*Get black velvet or a camera that blurs the background while showing foreground detail
*Clean everything meticuously
*Compose the picture properly
* Use a proper and large enough table

Edit: It would take very little to make that photo non-art. Just think if that display stand were natural birch, or the leaves had a small kink in one, or did not hang just perfectly. What if the pot had been centered on the stand. It is subtle but I think the asymmetry in the position on the stand adds to the dynamism of the composition. I'm a tweeker....

ak

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Carl_Bergstrom

For the record, I know that this is not your intent - I appreciate the discussion!



I agree with you about the way that the leaves fall. Before I take any picture of an accent plant (am I giving away too much and ruining the illusion here?) I always go carefully over the plant with a sharp set of leaf shears, trimming off anything that is not perfect, or perfectly balanced. I take a few snaps and look at it on a computer monitor, to be sure that I'm happy with the way that the composition translates into two dimensions. I'll gently twist the leaves over my fingers to make them fall just a little bit more downward, or stand just a notch more upright, or lean just slightly to one side.

As for the position on the stand? I agreed with you when I took the shot. Now, that's my biggest regret about it. In retrospect, I believe the pot should be centered.

Best regards,
Carl

If only you knew what I had to go through to post this reply....

Dkozi

I truly do appreciate all the aspects of a conversation that takes two years to develope and display for the world to see on a bonsai forum. -Dkozi

mike_p

Whatever we do with a camera, we should keep in mind these words of wisdom by Ansel Adams:
"There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept".

Mike

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

There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way
Gautama Buddha

bonsaial1

Carl I wouldn't be so eager to feel bad about the placement on the board. For instance, centering the composition on the board with leaves bending gracefully to the right while the plant being centered in the pot might not look as artistic. Yet the asymmetry of your foliage counterbalanced by the hint of off center of the plant on the board adds just enough balance. It is not over done and is very subtle. Just enough to make it work.


More on this stand display stuff later....

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A tree a day...thats all we ask.

valuehorse

bonsai can be a craft or an art. or both. or neither. this depends on the person making decisions.

”The endless conflicts between the spiritual and material, between ends and means, form and content, form and function, form and facture, form and purpose, form and meaning, form and idea, form and expression, form and illusion, form and habit, form and skill, form and style need to be resolved.

It is the merging of these conflicts that determines the aesthetic quality of a painting, a design, a building, a sculpture, or a printed piece (and so on).

A work of art, then, is the resolution of conflicting relations. It is a unity of opposites, a series of steps reflecting Hegel’s dialectics: thesis, the subject; antithesis, the conflict; and synthesis, the resolution.

Whatever one’s beliefs, art is commentary, art is revelation, art is the culmination of the creative process. It is a by-product, not a goal, a point of view about a particular object that rises above its topical source. It is not just a facsimile but an opinion expressed visually in a distinctive way."
-paul rand

If your bonsai is art and you photograph it, no matter how much you manipulate the photograph to be artistic, it's still only a documentation of art. i could photograph paintings/sculptures all day but that dosn't make me an artist.

just my opinion i guess.

mike_p

Good post, to which I'd like to add the words of a famous photographer/artist.

"The use of the term art medium is,
to say the least, misleading,
for it is the artist that creates a work of art
not the medium. It is the artist in photography
that gives form to content by a distillation of ideas,
thought, experience, insight and understanding."
Edward Steichen


Mike

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

There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way
Gautama Buddha