I thought it might be of interest to some on this thread to include some design-related Dan Robinson quotes from my book, Gnarly Branches, Ancient Trees. They are different snippets from various parts of the chapter, "Becoming Picasso," about his design ideas. I spent a great deal of time taping Dan for the book in both formal interviews and a number of informal settings, and these quotes I include here distill down much of his thinking in this area - though the entire chapter, or the entire book, expands and deepens these ideas, and provides copious photos of his trees, which literally bring his ideas to life. FWIW.
“I put on a demo once in Philadelphia, working on a spruce, hollowing the trunk, bending the branches. During the question period, one guy got involved in a theoretical question about my philosophy, what I was doing, how it related to this or that art form. I just drew this huge blank, because when I try to explain what pushes me in some direction, it’s much less about theoretical ideas, and more about what I’m surrounded with and seeing in nature. When working on a tree, I’m not thinking about design concepts as much as I am about this little sprig here, and how I can get it in just the right proximal location to these branches, so that each has its space, its time in the light. I’m thinking how you don’t want it directly under another branch because then it will fail, and how you need a paucity of foliage, which allows the light in. Those are nature’s way, and this is what weighs heavily on me: how is this miniaturized tree going to work in the natural order of things?”
“The study of natural tree forms is invaluable. While all trees, young or old, have inherent value, certain trees have an awe-inspiring effect which transcends a typical tree. These special trees are invariably the older ones, and the study of these ancient brethren is important for your memory bank.”
“We are the sum total of what our visual images allow us to be. And if all we’ve ever seen is a forest of young trees, or a classic Japanese bonsai, then that’s it. Everything else is an anomaly. Most people only see what they recognize. And there’s comfort in that: we all do it to a degree. But it points to the importance of a broad palate of recalled images.”
(Dan speaking of years past in the Southern California bonsai scene): “Certainly among the Japanese there are some pretty artistic guys, but the majority don’t seem to grab onto anything except, ‘Gee, I like this collected tree because it has a great trunk, but the only way I know how to make a top is to put a big green mushroom on it.’ And then it’s done over and over and over again. And every tree is trained like a pine tree. It’s just a very limited design idea, and you go to a convention and point at them one after another, ‘Bonsai, bonsai bonsai, bonsai.’ They all look the same. And there’s certainly nothing wrong with that, but it’s not very inspired.”
“It’s a difficult thing trying to teach certain people who want to analyze this art form down to some sort of formula which will lead to perfection. Perfection is always a state of mind, a judgement formed on the basis of prior experiences: if it comes close to that, which I’ve seen before, it must be good. Well, maybe so, but that’s the antithesis of creativity, because creativity means something new. And so it isn’t very creative to make it perfect by some scale that someone has articulated. What might be more perfect, if you’re more interested in the natural look of things, is that you’ve got something that no one has seen before, and yet it has a reasonableness about it in terms of the natural need to survive under these miniaturized conditions.”
