3rd National Juried Bonsai Pot Exhibition

Hello All-
  I am pleased to announce the upcoming 3rd National Juried Bonsai Pot Exhibition in 2015.  This is going to be an awesome show with 60 bonsai pots from the very best bonsai potters in the country.  There is an online application available on the NBF website here.   https://www.bonsai-nbf.org/national-bonsai-pot-competition/
The jurors are Deborah Bedwell (president of NCECA), Michael Hagedorn, and Sarah Rayner and is being organized by Ron Lang.
-Preston

And on June 16, 2015, we all expect to see PICTURES!

Thanks, Preston.

shared by Avery Anapol at the National Bonsai Foundation...

Enter the 2015 Pot Competition

The Third National Juried Bonsai Pot Exhibition will be on view this summer at the U.S. National Bonsai & Penjing Museum, Washington DC. This exhibition will feature beautiful and unusual handmade bonsai containers by well-known and emerging American artists. The featured pots will represent a diversity of colors, glazes, shapes and designs. “The exhibition is in keeping with the National Bonsai Foundation’s mission of showcasing new and experimental ideas relating to the art of bonsai,” said NBF President Felix Laughlin. “With this exhibition, we are pushing the boundaries of a typical bonsai display.” The deadline for entries is March 21, click HERE to enter now now.


(note:  Ron Lang, who is pictured, is one of the judges.  He will not a candidate in the Juried Pot Exhibition.)

Thanks Preston. Many of our excellent potters are known only to their local area. Will a list of potters (with address, web site, etc) be made available to us? This is an great avenue to make the local, hidden potter known to everyone.

Hi Doug... Let us hope the Juried Bonsai Pot Exhibition attracts the broadest range of entries.

There are awards to the First and Second Prize winners in each category-- Round, Oval, Rectangle, Cascade/Semi-Cascade, Shohin, Accent/Kusamono. Each category will have a $500 and $300, First and Second Prize Award. The Non-Traditional or "Experimental Design" Category will have First Prize- $1000., Second Prize $500 and Third Prize $300. The awards are presented at the Opening reception Friday evening.

All the pots that are selected by the jury for the exhibition will have their shipping fees reimbursed to the artists and the return shipping for all pots that are not sold during the exhibition will be paid by the National Bonsai Foundation. A great deal!

ENTRY DEADLINE: MARCH 21

Where can we see the results? Anyone?

At last night's reception at the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum, awards were given. The finalists pots were on view in the Exhibits Gallery (an indoor atrium attached to the Museum's International Wing) along with pots from each of the judges. Many were for sale, though I heard sighs from friends at several which were not-for-sale.  Awards were given to the artists/potters and several potters had several pieces in more than one category.  At the exhibit (but only following the presentation!), the awards were posted on the pedestals holding the individual pot.  Photos of pots were easy before the presentation, but the gallery quickly became VERY crowded after the presentation & later.

Here are the names I caught in various categories as presentations were made (please accept my apologies for any mistakes-- THIS IS NOT OFFICIAL!):
ACCENT/KUSAMOMO STYLE POTS:
1.  Jonathan Cross- Tiempe, AZ
2.  Kit Ruseau-  Silver Spring, MD  

CASCADE/SEMI-CASCADE STYLE POTS:
1.  Jake Oxnard-  Tampa, FL
2.  Steven Ziebarth- Cleveland, OH (I think, his name was on a separate page of the exhibitions's "Gallery Guide" from others in this category. I'll try to confirm.) 

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN STYLE POTS:
1.  Jonathan Cross- Tiempe, AZ (corrected attribution by Paul Katich-- THANKS!)
2.  Girard Eckhoff- Jackson, NJ

OVAL STYLE POTS:
1.  Paul Katich- Jacksonville, FL
2.   ?   ... Sorry, I missed it as the awards were presented quickly.

RECTANGLE STYLE POTS:
1.  Zachary Dunn- Syracuse, NY
2.  Paul Olsen-  Riverside, RI

ROUND STYLE POTS:
1.  Preston Tolbert- Old Fort, NC  
2.  Paul Katich-  Jacksonville, FL

SHOHIN STYLE POTS:
1. Jonathan Cross- Tiempe, AZ
2. Kit Ruseau- Silver Spring, MD

POTS BY CURATORS/JURORS:
-  Sharon Edwards-Russell -   Reedville, PA
-  Ron Lang-  Reedville, PA
-  Sara Rayner-  Redwing, MN
-  Michael Hagedorn- Milwaukie, OR
-  Deborah-Bedwell- Baltimore, MD

After this first-blush attempt, I'll try to get confirmation from the Museum &/or organizer Ron.  Special thanks to Ron Lang for organizing the 3rd National Juried Bonsai pot Exhibition Exhibition.  Special thanks to Doug Paul (The Kinnett Collection, PA) & Michael Pollack (Bonsai Shinsei, NY) for financial support in addition to the National Bonsai Foundation. Special thanks to Sharon-Edwards Russel (Ron's wife) for co-curating the exhibition.  Extra special thanks to potters who submitted pots for consideration.   Congratulations to Preston Tolbert as a winning potter who contributes to a wide variety of IBC discussions (awarded FIRST in the Round Style Pot category).  IBCer Rob Addonizio was a finalist in the Oval Style Pot competition-- thanks, Ron!

My apologies to any IBCers participating that I have failed to recognized.

Congrats to Preston, a Blue Ridge Bonsai Society (Asheville, NC) member, and IBC lurker.

And all the others, too, of course, but I don't know them.

To get a feel of the reception, here is Felix Laughlin (NBF President) standing at the podium just before presentation of awards.  Felix also thanked many people including Karen Harkaway (ABS President, NBF Director representing ABS) for the extraordinary ABS Bonsai Learning Seminar being held this weekend in Elliot City MD.  A large contingent of guests arrived from the ABS Seminar to the reception by bus & by car.  Karen is pictured (print dress).  Felix had also introduced the new director of the U.S. National Arboretum Richard Olsen, who had wowed NBF Directors by his insight into issues that might affect the Museum on Thursday morning.  Richard is the fellow other than Felix seen wearing a suit jacket.

Behind the folks standing is the indoor atrium where the juried pot exhibition is mounted.  




First display in the exhibit was of accent/kusamono style pots (stacked boxes contributed to rythmic flow throughout the pot exhibition)...



The last display of juried pots in the exhibition was of shohin style pots...

Congrats to all, and Paul K!!! Is there a link to see all the entries?

Congratulations to all the winners, and particularly to my friend Preston Tolbert! I too would be interested in seeing more photos if they're available somewhere out there.

Hi Judy...   There were 89 pots displayed as finalists in he juried show plus another 14 pots displayed from the curators/jurists.  Many folks took photos, but not of every pot, individually.  In addition to posts of the exhibits pots on IBC, I would look at the National Bonsai Foundation website, the Baltimore Clayworks website, the Lang Bonsai Containers website, the American Bonsai Society website or search for the "Third National Juried Bonsai Pot Exhibition" to see if photos are uploaded on bonsai blogs et al..

A submission document for the juried show noted:

excerpt from \"Prospectus" wrote:CATALOG: A digital cataloof the exhibited work will be published in PDF format. The high-resolution images submitted of each entry may be used in the catalog and other potential publications.

The pot tagged as #1 in the accent/kusamono-style group (see above) was also (by chance) the pot chosen as first among others by the judges.  The photo does none of these pots justice.

My recollection is that this is the pot which won first place in the oval-style group-- by Paul Katich (Jacksonville FL).  

Thanks Chris I'll check it out. I'm very interested to see American potters supported and encouraged in this way.

Chris,

I cannot take credit for the pot you posted.  The gallery guide indicates that pot #38 was made by David Bennett.



Here is a photo of the pot that took 1st place in the oval division.

You also listed me as winning the experimental pot category. Actually, that honor went to Jonathan Cross.

I see you were there on Friday night for the event opening.  I am sorry we did not get a chance to meet.

Regards,
Paul

Hi Paul...  I'm very sorry to not recognize many of the outstanding potters.  The awards ceremony & reception was terrific.  Unfortunately, I was riffling through the catalog as awards were presented hoping to identify winning potters for the IBC community.  Apparently, I didn't succeed without error... :-(.  Thanks  for clarifying!!!

Yours is a great oval pot, and I recall it as distinctive.  I hope there is opportunity to meet you at another venue.   

Do I recall correctly that you won second place alongside Peston Tolbert's first place in the round style bonsai pot category?  PLEASE share a photo.

Your are correct Chris.

Here is a photo of that particular pot.



Regards,
Paul

Here are some photos of the exhibition.

Please excuse the quality of the photos, the lighting conditions were not the best.

Accent/Kusamono Category



Cascade/Semi-Cascade Category



Experimental Design Category



Oval Category



Rectangle Category



Round Category



Shohin Category



Enjoy,
Paul

Thanks, Paul.  These photos are great.   Lighting was fine for exhibition viewing but not adequate for photo documentation--- unless photo lighting is adjusted with software.
  
The 3rd National Juried Bonsai Pot Exhibition will continue to mounted in the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum until June 2nd.  

Ron Lang shares that awarded pots/potters for the juried exhibition have been identified on the National Bonsai Foundation website:
https://www.bonsai-nbf.org/national-bonsai-pot-competition/. 
  

First-place pot in the Round Pot category by IBCer Preston Tolbert (North Carolina)...

(photo from NBF website) 




First place pot in the Experimental Design Pot category by Jonathan Cross (Arizona)...

(photo from NBF website)

CONGRATS to these 2 winners !

both are rough-trade gorgeous !!!

I'm the lucky one that got to buy Paul's 2nd place pot. I was third in line ))). I will be very excited to bring it home (and actually touch it for the first time, hahaha) in a couple weeks.
Thanks Paul!! I am very glad I got the opportunity to purchase such a beautiful pot.

Ted

phoenix wrote:I'm the lucky one that got to buy Paul's 2nd place pot. I was third in line ))). I will be very excited to bring it home (and actually touch it for the first time, hahaha) in a couple weeks.
Thanks Paul!! I am very glad I got the opportunity to purchase such a beautiful pot.

Ted

I appreciate the kind words Ted.

Please post a photo when you get one of your trees potted in your new pot.

Thank you very much for your support.

Regards,
Paul

I was fortunate enough to visit the National Arboretum this week with the pot show still up. As a new (1 year) bonsai potter the show was completely inspiring. I would like to say congrats to all of the entrants, the work was great and the pots lust-worthy. I feel fortunate to call a few of you potters friends or acquaintances, and I hope to meet many more of you in the future. Keep up the good work US potters!