American Bonsai at the NC Arboretum

Brilliant! A great solution to make a nice planting, into a Very nice planting. One thing I love so much about bonsai is that it's a living art form passing on from one artist to the next, who can each leave their mark.

Hello, new to the forums. Seems like a great community, looking forward to learning everything I can! I'm less than three hours from Asheville, next time I'm in the mountains I'll be sure to swing by. Thanks for the great thread.

Lovely forest, and a convincing forest. The canopy growing together over the years makes a very appealing picture.

Dan and Judy - thank you for continuing to read my posts and offer your responses; I appreciate it!
Tom Joad - that is a big name to live up to, buddy. I hope you will come to Asheville and visit the NC Arboretum, but if you do and you want to see some of the bonsai collection, you will need to do it sometime after May. The bonsai are put up in their winter quarters right now and not available to the public.

Last weekend I participated (on behalf of the NC Arboretum) in the 2nd annual Winter Silhouette Expo, held in Kannapolis, NC. By now I expect most readers here will have already heard of the event, either through Bill Valavanis' blog (http://valavanisbonsaiblog.com/2014/12/09/winter-silhouette-bonsai-expo-part-1/) or perhaps by watching the John Geanangel video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLCePEw612Y). It was a fine show and a pleasurable opportunity to catch up with bonsai friends, but my purpose here will not be to provide any further description of the event. Those who are interested should visit the 2 links provided above.

Rather, I would like to share with you an image of the Arboretum's display:



The bonsai featured in this display is a tray landscape named "Mount Mitchell". This is another of the pieces in the NC Arboretum collection that help connect our audience with the art of bonsai by depicting in living miniature an actual place in North Carolina. Mount Mitchell is the highest peak in the United States east of the Mississippi, and is preserved for public enjoyment as a State Park. Although Mount Mitchell was the inspiration for this piece, and identifying it by that name has value in engaging our local audience, my hope is that this tray landscape can stand well enough on its own merits that knowing anything about the environment it represents is secondary and non-essential. In short, my primary concern is that the landscape be artistically designed and enjoyable to look at.

In my view of it, bonsai display exists for the same reason - to be artistically designed and enjoyable to look at. Any bonsai of sufficient quality, if cleaned up and presented in a public place, should be enjoyable enough to look at in and of itself. The art of bonsai display, however, seeks to heighten the viewer's experience of the displayed piece by providing certain embellishments that ideally enhance its appearance. The most basic item in this regard is probably the display stand or table. By elevating the bonsai, the display table gives it greater prominence and suggests to the viewer that the item being shown is noteworthy. Other embellishments often include some sort of accessory piece - an herbaceous bonsai or a piece of statuary being common examples - and possibly some graphic artwork hung on the wall behind the displayed bonsai. All such secondary display features are typically expected to coordinate with the bonsai, and not be a distracting or competitive element.

As with seemingly everything else in bonsai, the Japanese have developed a deep and rich culture of what they consider to be proper formal display. Some semblance of the Japanese way of bonsai display is what is used as the standard for bonsai display throughout the Western world, and particularly in the US. It should be noted that relatively few westerners actually come close to capturing the essence of authentic Japanese bonsai display, mostly due to the fact that it takes a great deal of study and practice to master all the intricacies of their methods. It also helps to have been born and raised Japanese, and/or to view the world through the lens of a lifetime immersed in Japanese culture and tradition. Instead, and again as is seemingly the case in all aspects of bonsai, westerners usually end up achieving little more than some facsimile of the Japanese look. These efforts can range from fair approximations to embarrassing attempts that boarder on parody.

Perhaps most interesting about all of this is the fact that it is not necessary at all to display bonsai, or do bonsai, as the Japanese do. Some people are insistent that it is, but I have yet to hear even one compelling explanation as to why this should be so. I can only guess at this, but I think the primary reason most westerners choose to mimic Japanese style bonsai, including display, is because they find it difficult to come up with an alternative.

Personally, I enjoy exploring alternative methods of formal bonsai display. I like to approach it as a creative act, which by definition means that the results can vary wildly and not every viewer will respond positively. Such is the nature of creative endeavor! Of course, Japanese-influenced bonsai display should also be viewed as a creative act, but creativity is hampered, I think, by a primarily imitative mentality and the need to navigate foreign cultural waters.

Here is another recent attempt at creative display, this one being the NC Arboretum display at the 4th US National Bonsai Exhibition held last September:



Astute viewers will no doubt note that both of the displays I have posted today employ the same display table and a very similar painted image as a background piece. The painted panels are actually one and the same, but I altered it from one display to another. Viewers who are even more astute will note that the 2 displays I am presenting here actually rest quite heavily on the Japanese norms. All I have done is tinker a bit with the conventions to bring them more in line with my own cultural identity. Of the 2, I prefer the more recent, the one displayed last week at the Silhouette show. But I feel good about both of them, and I enjoyed being able to create an alternative bonsai experience to share with others at 2 excellent venues.

Hi Arthur,

I like both of your recent bonsai displays, especially the one at the US National Bonsai Exhibition in September. The boxes are unique with the design on the edge.

Recently I saw a container in a similar style in Japan. Looks like the Chinese also liked that motif centuries ago too.

Bill

Arthur Joura wrote:
Perhaps most interesting about all of this is the fact that it is not necessary at all to display bonsai, or do bonsai, as the Japanese do. Some people are insistent that it is, but I have yet to hear even one compelling explanation as to why this should be so. I can only guess at this, but I think the primary reason most westerners choose to mimic Japanese style bonsai, including display, is because they find it difficult to come up with an alternative.

Personally, I enjoy exploring alternative methods of formal bonsai display. I like to approach it as a creative act, which by definition means that the results can vary wildly and not every viewer will respond positively. Such is the nature of creative endeavor! Of course, Japanese-influenced bonsai display should also be viewed as a creative act, but creativity is hampered, I think, by a primarily imitative mentality and the need to navigate foreign cultural waters.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this matter.

At this point in my bonsai journey (about 4 years in), most of my interest is in the trees themselves. Keeping them healthy and vigorous and working on styling. I've accumulated a lot (too many?) of trees, pots, soil, tools, etc. I really don't have much interest in accumulating a bunch of display tables as well. Perhaps that will change as I progress, but even so - it seems almost impossible to acquire enough stands that are the proper height, proper style, etc - unless perhaps one only has a few trees.

Chris

Arthur Joura wrote:Perhaps most interesting about all of this is the fact that it is not necessary at all to display bonsai, or do bonsai, as the Japanese do. Some people are insistent that it is, but I have yet to hear even one compelling explanation as to why this should be so. I can only guess at this, but I think the primary reason most westerners choose to mimic Japanese style bonsai, including display, is because they find it difficult to come up with an alternative.

that last sentence... well put !!!
(i have a feeling it made more than a few people wince, though i am sure that was not your intention )

and hey chris !
all you need to do is rethink what constitutes a "stand"

This being the last day of year, I feel compelled to put up one final post on my of late much neglected thread. What better subject for such a purpose than an overlooked item from a couple of months ago - a sort of settling of accounts before closing the 2014 ledger.

In October we had our 19th Carolina Bonsai Expo, and as is our custom we featured a single guest artist. This year it was David DeGroot, late of the Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection (which is now known as the Pacific Bonsai Museum) in Federal Way, WA. David retired from there earlier this year after a 25-year stint as curator. It was his second turn as an Expo guest artist, placing him in rather exclusive company as a return invitee. Only Peter Adams, Walter Pall and Rodney Clemons had been in the club before him. David had previously headlined the Expo back in 1999.

Here he is with me the day after this year's show, doing some follow-up work on his demonstration tree:



For obvious reasons, I have an appreciation for bonsai curators. There are not so many of them and I think they serve an important, useful and often overlooked role in the overall bonsai community, at least here in the United States. David DeGroot was one of the best. He distinquished himself in his work for the Pacific Rim Collection, and was something of a role model to me. I have previously made the same statement regarding Bob Drechsler, the first curator of the US National Bonsai and Penjing Museum, but I learned different aspects of the job from David than I did from Bob. David's tenure with the Pacific Rim Collection involved more stylistic redevelopment with many of the specimens in his care. That is work I do to an even greater extent with the NC Arboretum collection, and something Bob did comparatively little of with the National collection. David also has been a consistent presence on the bonsai lecture circuit, which Bob was never was. While I am not nearly as well traveled a presenter as David, that work is still a significant part of my job description. So those elements of David's work were examples for me, and set the bar high.

David's abilities as a teacher were much in evidence the entire Expo weekend. As with all the best teachers, regardless of what subject they teach, he has not only the thorough knowledge of his subject, but also the ability to convey it in a comprehensible way. I think his tastes in bonsai run towards the conventional, but he is broadminded enough to appreciate any type of bonsai that is done well and exhibits artistic refinement. On the day after the Expo we went up into the mountains to relax and enjoy the scenery. Much of our conversation was "shop talk", and I probably learned as much from that experience as anyone who attended his demonstration program, or critique or workshop, during the weekend.

Among other topics, we were comparing notes about styling and what was possible with bonsai as an art form. As we walked I would point out certain trees in the landscape, and we would evaluate their character, and which, if any, of their features might be instructive as inspiration for bonsai design. Here is one that we looked at:



Can you see such a tree as a model for a bonsai? I can. David said he could too, although I do not know that he would care to make such a bonsai. I would.

Among David's other accomplishments, he is an author. His book, "Basic Bonsai Design" was published by the American Bonsai Society in 1995, and is an intelligent piece of work covering all aspects of the subject. He claims to be on the verge of producing an updated, expanded, hardcover version, on which he has been many years laboring. I expect it will be excellent, although there is some possibility that it is a figment of his imagination. It is difficult to tell with books until they are published.

One more bit of catching up: When I was in Rochester in September to participate in the 4th US National Bonsai Exhibition, I snapped this photo:



On the left is Aaron Packard, the young man with the responsibility of filling the curatorial shoes of David DeGroot. Aaron is the new curator at the Pacific Bonsai Museum. On the right is Chris Baker, the new bonsai curator at the Chicago Botanical Garden. Such youngsters! Suddenly I find myself aging into the role of a curatorial veteran...

(Thank you to Bill, Chris and Kevin for your replies to my previous post!)

Arthur

I apologise for ignoring your most recent post in favour of a previous one, which I must confess I'd missed first time round, but I'd just really like to comment on your displays.

Both are excellent but I was particularly drawn to Mount Mitchell!

If the primary objective of displaying art is to evoke in the audience a strong emotional response then I would have to say that you definitely hit the spot with that one! For me at least it immediately conjured up the impression of a moon lit landscape. A night in a mountain forest with the ghostly corpse of a dead tree illuminated by the full moon against the inky blue of the night sky. Fantastic. 

Perhaps more importantly though I think it's a good example of how a well chosen display set up can both enhance and also probably quite significantly alter the viewers perception of a bonsai. For example, I don't suppose there is anything inherently nocturnal about that planting when viewed on a conventional bench against a plain background.


Your other composition is also very attractive but I have to say that I don't think it works quite as well. I find the bright geometric patterns somewhat distract the eye and consequently detract from the trees. I'm also left wondering whether the similarity between the two trees isn't also weakening the impression. They are obviously different sizes but they are quite similar in shape, bark texture, leaf and trunk colour etc.

All in all though both are great in different ways and it is very interesting (well to me at least) to be able to compare the two as "display" is not something I have previously give much thought to.

Regards and best wishes for the new year.

Richard

It is indeed heartening to see such an influx of younger people taking up important positions and starting new and exciting businesses in the bonsai world. It's a credit to whoever excited them enough to take a serious role in the forward movement of bonsai in America.
Happy New Year Arthur, and all the rest of the IBCers.

Happy New Year! Thanks for continuing this thread Arthur. I too missed the Mt. Mitchell post, but I loved the display at the show in Kannapolis. Both years at the show you have put your spin on bonsai display in a positive and creative way that both emulate classic display and push a modern and forward thinking display, for lack of better descriptions. I am interested in who made the container the Mount Mitchell planting is in, it was very well paired. Cheers!

JudyB wrote:It is indeed heartening to see such an influx of younger people taking up important positions and starting new and exciting businesses in the bonsai world.  It's a credit to whoever excited them enough to take a serious role in the forward movement of bonsai in America.  
Happy New Year Arthur, and all the rest of the IBCers.

amen judy...
it truly is good to see the young come into this endeavor and then to have such incredible opportunites...

makes me wish i had taken this up when i was younger

and thanks arthur for keeping this post alive... albeit sporadically
dontcha know you are supposed to sit in front of a computer all day keeping us posted ???
isnt THAT part of your job description ???
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just razzing ya, man !!!
keep on keepin' on !!!

Thanks for posting Arthur, very nice and interesting displays, very inspiring.

Thanks also for the link to William V.'s blog, I had missed that.

Thank you to the numerous people who have left comments here since my last post. My purpose today is to respond to some of the questions and comments you made.

Judy and Kevin both applauded the influx of youth in the American bonsai scene. Of course it is critical that new blood constantly be entering any body of endeavor if that body is to have a future. But it is particularly so in bonsai where so many of the practitioners are middle aged and beyond, and it takes many years for a person to begin to find their way in the art. I think bonsai has proven itself to have enough intrinsic appeal that it will always attract a certain percentage of the population. The challenge then is to hold onto as many of these newcomers as possible. A key ingredient, I think, is support and encouragement for those who show an interest, and this must come from some sort of community of others who already have the interest. Clubs, study groups and on-line forums such as the IBC all contribute to this wellspring of community.

At this point in time there is little in the way of professional opportunity to encourage young people in the US, or in the Western world in general, to invest fully in a pursuit of bonsai. Nothing says that we must reserve our best efforts for only those pursuits at which we can derive financial benefit, but in our culture, for better or worse, that is how it often goes. The population of the US in 2014 was estimated to be 322,583,006. Although I do not have accurate statistical information to cite, my educated guess is fewer than 100 people out of that vast number made a full-time living at bonsai. Aaron Packard and Chris Baker, the 2 new curators of public bonsai collections who were pictured in my previous post, were incredibly fortunate to secure the positions they did because such opportunities are more rare than fresh clams in Kansas. So most young people who might be attracted to bonsai must sustain their interest purely on the enjoyment of doing it, rather than on the promise of someday getting paid to do it.

It deserves mention, while I am at it, that both Aaron and Chris found their way to their new jobs through experience gained at the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum. Aaron was Assistant Curator at the National before landing the Pacific Bonsai Museum curatorship, and Chris served a 1-year internship there. I have my own connection to the National from years ago, about which I have previously written in this thread (https://ibonsaiclub.forumotion.com/t12772p30-bonsai-at-the-nc-arboretum#138640).

The other comments recently received referred to the images I posted from December's Winter Silhouette Expo in Kannapolis, NC.

I was gratified to read the thoughts shared by Richard, in which he described the feeling my Mount Mitchell display evoked for him: "A night in a mountain forest with the ghostly corpse of a dead tree illuminated by the full moon against the inky blue of the night sky." Perfect! And I concur completely with his take on the power of formal bonsai display to "both enhance and also probably quite significantly alter the viewer's perception of a bonsai." To me, this is the great attraction to doing a formal display - the ability to creatively manipulate the viewer's experience. I think too little of this happens at bonsai shows, and that is unfortunate because of the missed opportunity to better engage the public. I have heard and read the opinions of others who say their interest at a bonsai show is in the trees, and not in how they are displayed. This makes little sense to me. It is not a case of having one or the other. A quality bonsai incorporated in a quality creative display does not lose anything; ideally it gains from the total effect of the display. Perhaps more of an issue for folks is the challenge of coming up with an idea for a creative display, and then having the nerve to put it out in the public square to be judged by others.

Which leads neatly to my response to the more critical review Richard gave the other display I posted, the one prepared for the US National Bonsai Exhibition. Although he viewed that display in an overall favorable way, there were elements of it that did not sit completely comfortably with him. I accept this without difficulty. In my own mind I considered those points he questioned and decided there is no need to defend them, as they represent conscious decisions on my part. I thought those elements worked and he thought they did not. I am grateful he found the display interesting enough to think about and comment upon. Besides, I agree with him overall in finding the Mount Mitchell display to be the better of the two. On the other hand, Bill Valavanis, who knows a thing or two about bonsai display, said he liked the National Exhibition display better. The value of the whole enterprise is in the act of creating and sharing, engaging an audience and engendering a response. A positive reaction is typically desired, but never guaranteed.

Eli and Alain, I thank you for taking the time to post your encouraging remarks. Eli asked about the container used for the "Mount Mitchell" planting - it was made by Sara Raynor. When I first put together the planting I had it in a nondescript, unglazed, brown tray of commercial-grade Japanese manufacture. When I acquired the Raynor tray I did not have a specific use in mind for it, but then came to the conclusion it would be a deserving upgrade for the Mount Mitchell piece. That is how I typically go about container selection, by purchasing containers I like and then finding the right thing to put in them, as opposed to looking for a specific pot for a specific plant.

Here is a high quality photograph of the "Mount Mitchell" planting, which affords a better view of the container and display stand:



The image was made by Joe Noga, who's name will be familiar to the readers of "International Bonsai Magazine". Joe is a longtime associate of Bill Valavanis who relocated to North Carolina a few years ago. He was set up at the Winter Silhouette Expo to make formal photographic portraits of all the bonsai brought to the show. Joe then generously shared these images without charge to all who exhibited. Thank you Joe!

The NC Arboretum displayed a second bonsai at the Silhouette show, and here is Joe's photograph of it:



The plant is a Diane Witch-hazel (Hamamelis X intermedia 'Diane'), planted in a container by Mark Issenberg of Lookout Mountain Pottery. It was a late addition to the show. Originally I intended to create greater visual impact for the Mount Mitchell display by having it stand alone on the 8-foot table the Arboretum was given for its display, but then decided the result looked more empty than impactful. The idea would have worked on a 6-foot table, but 8 was too much. I thought the character of the witch-hazel worked well enough alongside the other, but the Mount Mitchell display was really intended to stand alone.

Posting this image allows me to step back and respond to a comment earlier posted by Chris, in which he ruminated on the need to acquire a multitude of display tables to use for formal displays. In my view of it, it is highly desirable (and mandatory at some shows) to have a stand or table under a bonsai being formally displayed, but it is not at all necessary to have the "proper" type of stand as dictated by the rather exacting Japanese example. At a Carolina Bonsai Expo a few years back our guest artist was aghast at a display of a cascade form bonsai presented on what appeared to be a reasonably tall-legged, tasteful stand. As it turned out, that stand was a Chinese table originally meant to display a specific item, I think it was a lamp. No one knew that except the guest artist. He said most emphatically, "You would never display a cascade bonsai on that kind of stand!" I answered sheepishly, "I would..." And I would, if I thought it looked good and served the purpose. The poor person who displayed the bonsai felt embarrassed for having been publicly rebuked.

Some years ago I hired a local woodworker to make a set of 4 display tables for the Arboretum. 3 of them were rectangles of different sizes and the 4th was a square, and is the table seen under the witch-hazel pictured above. The design of the tables was his, based on my instructions to him - make them simple, not ornate, with clean lines, and no Asian stylistic overtones. He used tulliptree wood, native to our region, and stained it a fairly dark and neutral earth tone color. I think simple tables like these are usable with a variety of different forms and styles of bonsai, so all that is needed is enough variety in sizes to cover your needs. Those who have dedicated many hours to studying the dictates of formal Japanese bonsai display may find such a philosophy of basic functionality deficient, but so what? The greater world of possibilities that exists outside their exclusive enclave proves a more naturally comfortable place for most of us.

Interesting Arthur,
Laters.
Khaimraj

Arthur wrote:He used tulliptree wood, native to our region, and stained it a fairly dark and neutral earth tone color. I think simple tables like these are usable with a variety of different forms and styles of bonsai, so all that is needed is enough variety in sizes to cover your needs.

YES!

Hi Arthur,

I love the stand that the witch hazel is on! I think it complements the tree so well, and then the lovely splash of color with the pot. Beautiful display.

Steve

Arthur Joura wrote:I have heard and read the opinions of others who say their interest at a bonsai show is in the trees, and not in how they are displayed. This makes little sense to me. It is not a case of having one or the other. A quality bonsai incorporated in a quality creative display does not lose anything; ideally it gains from the total effect of the display. Perhaps more of an issue for folks is the challenge of coming up with an idea for a creative display, and then having the nerve to put it out in the public square to be judged by others.

arthur - you have hit the nail on the head with that last sentance i quoted above... and i think this is also a major issue for the "check-book bonsai artists" out there, and i make no apologies for calling them out as such... if one is not willing to at least attempt to be creative and would rather purchase (and subsequently display) a tree that someone else designed and finished, then how can they be bothered to come up with a creative display ???

personally i would rather have a sub-par tree that is of my design (knowing full well i have a lot to learn still) than one designed by someone else.

but for folks like me who are still new to this endeavor, the display can be an area that we can explore and be creative with while our trees take their sweet time developing

i put alot of thought and work into the display i came up with for the MBS show in september of 2014 as i posted in this thread:
(beginning 4th picture down)

https://ibonsaiclub.forumotion.com/t16058-milwaukee-bonsai-society-44th-annual-exhibit

was the tree very good ?
hhmmmm... not really... but getting better every day.

was the display very good ?
maybe, maybe not.

did it detract from the (sub-par) tree ?
i dont think so.

but most importantly did i have an enjoyable time in the creative process ?
you bet i did.

and my last third-person question:
was it hard to put myself out there with a very non-traditional display to be judged by others ?
maybe a little nervousness (as it was only my 3rd showing), but nothing that prevented me from doing so.

and there is nothing that should prevent others from doing so either.

as always, arthur, many of us appreciate your point of view and i hope enough north americans (and others around the world) find the nerve to follow suit, if that is what they desire to do.

Very good points Arthur! I love what you're doing with the creative displays!

Kevin,
Do you mean to imply that you believe people with money should not be able to buy "finished" trees and enter them into shows? Or for that matter, pay someone to design their tree and display for a major show?

I'm not attempting to start an argument here, but your post seemed a bit hostile towards those you'd call "checkbook artists." Are these people claiming to be artists, and in a sense stealing the credit? Or are they simply proud owners of a nice piece of art, and eager to enter it into a show?

Dan W. wrote:Kevin,
Do you mean to imply that you believe people with money should not be able to buy "finished" trees and enter them into shows? Or for that matter, pay someone to design their tree and display for a major show?

I'm not attempting to start an argument here, but your post seemed a bit hostile towards those you'd call "checkbook artists." Are these people claiming to be artists, and in a sense stealing the credit? Or are they simply proud owners of a nice piece of art, and eager to enter it into a show?

at the risk of digressing...

dan, in re-wording what i wrote rather than quoting me, you have extrapolated a couple things that i did not say or imply (though no offense taken, as i'm sure it was unintentional), so let me put it like this:

i personally wouldn't feel right purchasing someone else's art and entering into a judged art show as my own work.
(whether it be a painting, sculpture or bonsai)

granted, when i first started, i bought a couple "pre-bonsai", but i would not consider sticking them in "the contest" until they have been sufficiently manipulated by me to the point where i can call it my work.

but in answer to your first 2 questions, if someone else wants to do that, that is their pejorative, and is certainly allowed, in bonsai shows... i just disagree with it when the work is being judged.

now having said that, and as well as i can answer your second 2 questions - if someone buys a finished tree and simply enters it in the open, un-judged, and non-awarded class, then i can accept that as it does not seem much different from having friends over to check out the cool new painting or sculpture that you or i may have recently purchased...

but, and that is a big but - we all know that many bonsai folks have contest awards hanging on their wall or standing on their mantle for work that i will instead refer to as "less than their own efforts"... and that is what i am against.

and like most opinions, it is only that: an opinion.

and no worries about starting an argument... this wouldnt be the thread for that
(and i did not mean to come across as hostile... opinionated ? yes. hostile ? no.)

Guys,

simple, use different categories for judging, Natural, Mannerist, Idealised, Found, Purchased, and so on.
No need to run a bought creation against home grown effort.

You do both realise that Arthur's stand is also the base [ basic shape ] on which another can carve much more information into it i.e say Ming type dragons, or European landscape or other.

What you should be analysing is how does the positive wooden shape, cut the negative space around it, and could it be improved ?
How much more could it present the tree?
Slimmer legs, more curves, straights and so on. Mission style, Shaker, Armish.................................
Laters.
Khaimraj

Thanks for taking my questions well Kevin. I didn't mean to re-word what you said, only to ask for clarification on your thoughts.

I believe we could possibly separate shows into categories for say, artist only, and so on. But to this point, I believe these shows have been intended to judge the tree, and display of the tree. The other possibility is that most shows are not entirely clear on what they intend to be judged.

There are competitions to judge the skill of an artist strictly on their ability as an artist. The Joshua Roth comp. is a good example. Each artist starts with very similar material and is required to complete the styling in a set amount of time. -- Really, in a regular competition it's nearly impossible to judge on the merits of an artist only, because every tree is different. You are forced to judge between nursery stock and yamadori, species, and every other difference available beyond the control of an artist.

Most of the Japanese bonsai are owned by one person, but worked, cared for and displayed by a professional. The owner gets the award and the professional gets recognition/more business. There are also strictly "artist" competitions.

yes khai and dan, separate categories would be great...

i have heard of the joshua roth contest and i think that is a great venue to showcase up and coming talent.
(though i think it would be a good idea to revisit the trees in one years time to see how they survived all that single session work... )

but to be perfectly honest the general idea of "the contest" is somewhat repellent to me as the appreciation of any art is first in the eye of the creator and second in the eye of the general public, some of which will like it, and some of which will not... leaving the judging of "the contest" to one subjective individual doesnt seem right, just as critics do not seem right as they tend to seem like self-important dictators of what the public should and shouldnt enjoy... luckily bonsai judges tend to be practitioners of the art and not just observers, but still...

but we digress as this really has nothing to do with arthur's post and after all, this is his thread.
and i am the one guilty of sending it in this direction... sorry about that, arthur

so... how about them displays, huh ?

Hey guys we are going off on a tangent. This is Arthur's musings. Let's take this side discussion off to t new thread. Thanks.

Arthur Joura wrote:Perhaps most interesting about all of this is the fact that it is not necessary at all to display bonsai, or do bonsai, as the Japanese do. Some people are insistent that it is, but I have yet to hear even one compelling explanation as to why this should be so. I can only guess at this, but I think the primary reason most westerners choose to mimic Japanese style bonsai, including display, is because they find it difficult to come up with an alternative.

Personally, I enjoy exploring alternative methods of formal bonsai display. I like to approach it as a creative act, which by definition means that the results can vary wildly and not every viewer will respond positively. Such is the nature of creative endeavor! Of course, Japanese-influenced bonsai display should also be viewed as a creative act, but creativity is hampered, I think, by a primarily imitative mentality and the need to navigate foreign cultural waters.

Arthur Joura wrote: I think too little of this happens at bonsai shows, and that is unfortunate because of the missed opportunity to better engage the public. I have heard and read the opinions of others who say their interest at a bonsai show is in the trees, and not in how they are displayed. This makes little sense to me. It is not a case of having one or the other. A quality bonsai incorporated in a quality creative display does not lose anything; ideally it gains from the total effect of the display. Perhaps more of an issue for folks is the challenge of coming up with an idea for a creative display, and then having the nerve to put it out in the public square to be judged by others.

Hi Arthur, I have re-read some of your latest post and would like to comment on them. First I agree with you that it is not necessary for bonsai to always be displayed as the Japanese do. I think that those that insist that it should be most likely are also very endeared to the Japanese culture, (way of life) as much as they are bonsai and feel that you must follow tradition when it comes to bonsai even though the Japanese were not the first to do bonsai. I however, do not have these concerns since I am an American and our culture is different. You are absolutely correct in your statement about why westerns choose to "mimic japanese" bonsai and display. The reason I think we find it so difficult is because there is almost no other alternative. I only know of three of what I would call true American bonsai artist, yourself, Nick Lenz, and Dan Robinson, and I say this because of the work that these artist have produced that has dared to be different. This is not to say that other outstanding bonsai artist in this country are less American, but they are indocrinated in the Japanese way of doing bonsai as we all have been. Unfortunately, if Americans keep trotting off to Japan to learn bonsai and then come back and instruct others that have little other alternative ways of doing bonsai then that is they way it will remain in this country for many, many years.

One of the reason I enjoy the Carolina Expo is because it gives those that participate an oportunity to be creatively free in the way they display thier clubs bonsai and has been doing so for almost 20 years now. The only time they might be some push back on the display technigues is when the guest artist is extremely Japanese centric, but that is to be understood because they themselves don't know any other way to display bonsai. I just hope Arthur that you have the energy to keep the show going for another twenty years, or at least get others involved to be able to pickup the banner and run with it. But again, I want to get back to the point that there is also very little avenue for american bonsai artist to learn about putting a good display together, whether is be Japanese centric or not. As I started to get into bonsai, the thought of putting together a display for the show happened a week before our annual show, and it mostly consisted of borrowing a stand from some of the more established members in the club, or ordering it at the last minute because you just realized you needed one. It has been my experience that in general very little time of bonsai club meetings, conventions, workshop, or shows is spent on putting together a complete display whether it be on an individual basis, or club level. It wan't until our club started participating in the Caroliina Expo that an emphasis was put on the display itself. Many of the participant that I have talked with have stated that they start working as much as a year in advance on thier display concepts for this show my club included. This is because you can get away from the drapped table cloths and backgrounds and the cookie cutter design of a japanese style show that dictates "tree goes here", "accent goes here" "scroll hanges here" and "bamboo sticks go on both sides". Of course the trees are expected to be of the best quality as possible, but there is as much of and emphasis expected in the creative design of the display in its entirety. The only place that the show falls short, is at the critic done by the guest artist, The emphasis is always on the trees. How the trees look, what is good about them, what is not good about them and so on. Comments on the display itself are generally not as indepth as comments on the trees and this may be why people don't really look at the displays so much as they do the trees.

So I hope that some day more shows like the Carolina Expo will pop around the country and people will come together who want to "mimic" Japanese bonsai less and less. We need our "Moses to lead us our of Egypt"......LOL

Steve