rockm
Spuds Moyogi
"Another consideration is how much does one's own personal taste change over time? Has anyone experienced this? After all, bonsai does take a long time... I seem to remember that as a beginner I had an entirely different taste and perspective. Should I anticipate that in twenty years my taste will have evolved?"
If you do bonsai with any real intent over a few years, your tastes change dramatically. Sadly, as you go along you learn the "magic" (technical stuff) that makes a good and excellent bonsai. You start seeing all those techniques (trunk chops, hard pruning wounds, etc. ) in trees you used to be awestruck by when you first started.
But as you grow you slowly begin to develop respect not as much for the image a particular tree has (although that is certainly a huge part of things), but for the work and control that went into it.
For instance, I had forever thought mame trees weren't all that
. Until I understood they are literally the bleeding edge of bonsai and can only really be effectively created and managed by someone with vastly more experience than me. Too little room for error. I still don't like them all that much, but a great mame tree is better than an excellent larger specimen because the work and balance needed to achieve it are greater.
Also, I've developed more understanding and respect for the trees that most beginners feel are "ugly" or "grotesque" yeah, I mean sumo and literati. Sumo trees, GOOD sumo trees, take some doing. The exaggerations that bother some show me the person making the tree has mastered some of the finer artistic and horticultural aspects of bonsai. Same for literati. A good literati tree is effortless-looking, but are ball-breakers to create. Same for formal upright and windswept trees.
If you do bonsai with any real intent over a few years, your tastes change dramatically. Sadly, as you go along you learn the "magic" (technical stuff) that makes a good and excellent bonsai. You start seeing all those techniques (trunk chops, hard pruning wounds, etc. ) in trees you used to be awestruck by when you first started.
But as you grow you slowly begin to develop respect not as much for the image a particular tree has (although that is certainly a huge part of things), but for the work and control that went into it.
For instance, I had forever thought mame trees weren't all that
. Until I understood they are literally the bleeding edge of bonsai and can only really be effectively created and managed by someone with vastly more experience than me. Too little room for error. I still don't like them all that much, but a great mame tree is better than an excellent larger specimen because the work and balance needed to achieve it are greater.Also, I've developed more understanding and respect for the trees that most beginners feel are "ugly" or "grotesque" yeah, I mean sumo and literati. Sumo trees, GOOD sumo trees, take some doing. The exaggerations that bother some show me the person making the tree has mastered some of the finer artistic and horticultural aspects of bonsai. Same for literati. A good literati tree is effortless-looking, but are ball-breakers to create. Same for formal upright and windswept trees.
