I am reminded of a song by Carly Simon. You were/are the furthest thing on my mind when I started this. Eyore doesn’t become you. I do bonsai my way, always have. I tell about bonsai, my way always have. I post pictures to back up my claims and even when I learn them from someone else I use them, test them, and share them.
I don’t talk about bonsai professionals much. Mostly because I have never had the privledge to afford one. For me the afford part is not just the ability to pay for the service, it’s everything that comes after that. I don’t feel it’s prudent to spend thousands of dollars to work with a professional and continue working on 30.00 material. Yet I know many that do, and the trees look like it as well
There is one thing I do like about professionals and I have seen most of them in the world in person. They don’t talk about who they learned from or parrot what they learned... they SHOW you what they learned. That’s what I’m talking about.... not you.
A list of who I have worked with, in actual workshops.
Walter Pall
Kunio Kobayashi
Shinji Suzuki
Peter Warren
Ryan Neal
Marco Invernizzi
John Naka
Harry Hirao
And Masahiko Kimura
Not one of them ever made me feel like I was learning second hand information and I felt that what I was learning was tried and true on their own trees. I suspect they felt parroting information wasn’t exactly worth the money they were charging.
Simple as that.
Kimura was an apprentice before he became “The Magician”. Shinji Suzuki and Ryan Neil apprenticed under Kimura. Michael Hagedorn, Matt Reel, and Tyler Sherrard all were apprentices under Shinji Suzuki. Those three were all taught by Boon before they went to Japan to study.
Smoke, do you think Shinji simply ignores everything he was taught by Kimura? Or Ryan or Hagedorn? Sure, each guy develops his own style, the art aspect, but some things, like how to wire, are pretty much the same! When Boon teaches wiring, he uses a photograph of Kimura’s wiring as an example.
None of this stuff was created in a vacuum.
You say you’ve been to workshops with all these famous people. I’m sure you went because you wanted to learn things to employ with your bonsai. Assuming you do apply some of the things you learned, you’re trying to claim that YOU discovered all your methods of working with bonsai???? And you are calling me vain????
Look in the mirror.
I don’t claim to have invented any bonsai technique. I try to give credit to where I learned what little I know.
What it all comes down to is jealousy. You’re jealous that I can afford to travel across the country and study with someone. Jealous that I can afford to buy some decent trees. Jealous that I share what I have learned. Jealous that others appreciate that I do.
It’s too bad that you act the way you do. You are spending your time belittling others than than educating others. Beating them down rather than raising them up. At one time, you had a good reputation on this site. As you love to point out you’ve been posting on this and other sites for a long, long time. And you built quite a following! Good for you. But recently, you’re imploding. Destroying your good reputation you built over the years with sheer pettiness.
Grow up.
