Thread: 55th California Bonsai Society Convention --Lots of images, be patience while loads--

[alonsou]

The past weekend, the California Bonsai Society held the 55th Convention and show at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Garden Grove CA.

I wasn't able to make it to the workshops or critiques (hopefully next time, in 5 years), but I got plenty of images from the Main display for you to enjoy.

If anyone else here was able to make it to the workshops and critiques and have pictures available, feel free to share them with us here

Cheers!

The Vendors area!



You can see an small quarter at the bottom of the pot (right hand side) for you to scale this Bonsai, probably a Dai or Hachi-uye size

[Neil Jaeger]

WOW some wonderful trees, really love the ginko.

Neil

[AlainK]

WOW some wonderful trees,

Yes, I agree.

really love the ginko.

Neil

I don't!

Apart from the fact that its owner has obviously a very good technique,

To me, it doesn't look like a ginko, I've never seen one looking like that. A yew hedge, or some topiary box-tree maybe, but a ginkgo, no way...

So what's the use of being an exceptionally good technician to work a tree that has no other interest than showing how good the technique is but in the end makes a ginkgo look like a cauliflower?

Oops, me and my big mouth...

I'm sure that the person who did this is capable of something else, of a much better design.

A French poet said something that in English is something like "Talent without technique is but a bad habit". I'd say that technique without a vision amounts to a boring, uninteresting piece of work. the kind of thing that can be displayed with a painting of does drinking in a pond under autumn tress, and a deer looking proudly in the distance. Kitsch, but not kitsch enough to be thought-provoking. Laudable from a technical point of view, totally uninteresting, and useless from an artistic point of view.

Zappa, Warhol, where are you?...

[Todd Ellis]

Neil,
I love the ginkgo too. To grow that much foliage from a stump takes a lot of skill plus time. One of the great features about the old ginkgos is their "grotesqueness". Alain, consider adding this image to your repertoire for ginkgoes.
Alonsou, thank you for posting these great trees!

Best,
Todd

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