I agree a lot
@sawgrass
Everywhere you turn its pretty much always the same faces. I have worked with a few of those names here and there over the years and to be honest one of the things that went through my mind when meeting them, watching their demo's, etc. was that if I were younger pretty much the whole experience with them would be enough to make me shy away from bonsai.
I know it is going to spark some unnecessary comments, but one of the bigger names in the USA that is really making a lot of noise about bonsai on the west coast is Ryan Neil. Being older myself I have a tolerance and understanding of people @ his age. I think his drive for promoting bonsai is great and have nothing bad to say about what he is doing, but I'm not sure if it was his time in Japan, or just his natural demeanor, the guy has a bit of an ego. I have spoken with several of the younger crowd who have interacted with him that were quite put off by it. I've also witnessed it in his videos and interviews. The younger group doesn't really know how to take things like that with a grain of salt. They really are a sensitive group.
I also have witnessed what I call "Japan apprentice syndrome" in a lot of the names you hear a lot in the current community. Having apprenticed in Japan under a few different artists in my youth, I can tell you first hand that maybe 10% of what you learn while there is about wiring and styling and working on trees. I'm not the only one who admits that. Bjorn Bjorholm has said it many times. Apprenticing in Japan is not what makes a person a bonsai "master" or "professional", I have met MANY people who completed an apprenticeship in Japan and still can barley produce a tree worthy of exhibition. Yet a major part of people in the bonsai scene thing studying in Japan or under a Japanese Master is what defines a bonsai professional. The youth today are not going to be into that cultural stereotype and are going to be more put off by it than drawn in because of it.
Having 2 doctorates, and a masters and having written several curriculum in my days, I can tell anyone with certainty what defines a "master" in today's educational definition. 10,000 hours of study including 1,000 hours of applied focus. That's it.
Not that I'm rich by any means, but I did well enough for myself over my life that I have been afforded a few luxuries in my retirement. One of those luxuries is that I have been fortunate enough to travel the world over and spend a lot of time with bonsai enthusiasts, hobbyists, professionals and masters. In those travels I met a true master among masters, more knowledge, understanding, comprehension and applied practice than anyone I have ever come across in a list of hundreds if not thousands by now names I have met including the names we all know in Japan. The man lives in India, had 0 formal training from any "masters" has never competed in anything major and really had no interest in flying his "look at me" flag. I spent an entire week with him, Learned in that time that everything he has learned was from books, and practice, and for the past few years the internet. He told me once that "you don't have to study under Raja Ravi Varma to learn how to pick up a paintbrush and create beautiful works of art, you only have to pick up the paintbrush and never stop learning" It made perfect sense to me, although I did have to google Raja to learn he was a famous 19th century Indian artist.
Anyways, now that this has turned into a short novel. The point I am getting at, and have further confirmed by many of the replies to this thread is that a lot of you are right. The current bonsai culture is not something many younger people, or even middle aged people these days are really going to take to. Although a know a lot of very talented people who have apprenticed in Japan, worshiping them and abiding to the stigma that apprenticing in Japan makes them any more of a master than someone who has spent 10-20 years of their lives working on Bonsai and constantly progressing their talents is really whats wrong with the current culture.
It has become clear as day after reading a lot of these replies that in order to bring in more people especially the younger crowd that one of two things will have to happen. Either the apprentice worshiping culture has to stop or change, Or a new more accepting, more open minded, community has to be built. One that doesn't always so eagerly try to define what a professional or master is. One that thinks outside of the past 100 years of bonsai and seeks to reinvent itself. A culture that is more a fluid organism than a brick in the shaolin temple.
Oooops, Got to run. The wife just gave me the "get off the computer" look.
