I narrowed my focus to All Ficus and Texas Ebony after about 3 years. I just found only those really made me feel the way I want my trees to make me feel.
And that, when all is said and done, is what it's all about.
I narrowed my focus to All Ficus and Texas Ebony after about 3 years. I just found only those really made me feel the way I want my trees to make me feel.
And that, when all is said and done, is what it's all about.
"Hmm
There's symbolism in Japanese bonsai, that's why they look as cliches to us.
The shape of the crown for example, triangular in most Japanese bonsai, unites Man, Heaven and Earth, creating a path of spiritual values followed by those who take care of a little tree.
With the medium of bonsai, the human soul is intended to seek a union with the higher soul of nature, trying to capture its essence."
This is an idea that's been promoted by Westerners who idealize eastern mysticism. It's quaint, but not really all that accurate. Ask a commercial Japanese bonsaiist about the "triangle connecting Man Heaven and Earth" on his trees and you'll get a belly laugh or a questioning stare...
There were a few years back (and probably still are) Japanese who say Westerners can never understand bonsai because they're not Japanese. Only Japanese, they say, can really give a bonsai inner meaning.
I say "BULLS---" That's an elitist, close minded view that is an attempt to bolster a rather stagnant approach to bonsai. It's more accurate to say that Westerners can do bonsai, sometime better than the Japanese. We're just not tied to their cultural limits of what bonsai is. The Japanese are VERY good at "triangle on a trunk" bonsai.
Things can get sticky when it comes to other approaches, however. I read in a Japanese bonsai book a while back that Bald cypress "was mostly unmanageable" as bonsai. Next to that quote was a rather sad looking spiky unimaginative Japanese bald cypress bonsai. One only needs to look at what American bonsai artists can do with that species:
http://www.cajunbonsai.com/largecypresspage.htm
to see that statement is complete hogwash. It just takes a deeper physical (and probably spiritual) understanding of the material in its native state to make a bonsai from it.
If you've ever get a good look at some of the Japanese import trees, you'd see that alot of them are just triangles of foliage stuck on jins. There's no real "spirituality" other than rote repetition and heavy directional wiring...
For what it's worth, Western culture has just as rich as a connection to nature as eastern. Western religious thought just not as fashionable or as romantically mystic as eastern "Zen." In fact, Western Celtic cultures just about invented tree worship...
I got up on a soapbox. The topic of spirituality and bonsai is a pet peeve of mine. I go a bit off my rocker talking about it.
Dammit!
Now I need to relearn English.
Irene
(you boys are really making me work)
Sorry for the opaque allusions and idiomatic writing...Put THAT in Bablefish and smoke it