Wanted to add one more thing to the discussion, cause I think it is relevant...
That I think that that in reality what is happening here is that there is awakening from what happened in Nirvana land... but, I am not quite sure it will have the long term impact that perhaps was intended by those who hosted the event.
I will explain... I think for a lot of folks they instead of stepping in line were actually turned off by what they saw and heard... for me, I know I was.
This event was hailed as the event that was to represent American Bonsai... yet, I found this not to really be the case. The disproportionate ratio of the type of trees, the regions from which they came from... the lack of any trees from outside of just the states, the way in which the host chose to display and lack of display items they felt did not belong in these displays, etc... I think, as well of a lot of others I am sure, seemed to be more self contained within the views of what the host felt was representative of what American Bonsai should look like, with little of what American Bonsai perhaps really looked like.
I think this will be it's undoing... and I mean this seriously. I mean if one is to claim that American Bonsai as their product... and one does not see representations of bonsai that they see in their regions, seeing that the Americas are a big place and hold any number of different type climates and environments, one naturally gets the feeling that this had very little to do with what the product claimed it was to represent.
Now, I understand there were issues... like politics, where folks might have felt they were being snubbed before the event even took place, that were out of the host's control... I also, know that the lack of entries was apparent, as backed up through numerous sources that I have spoke to, that said that including the entries submitted for the original date the year before that was postponed, just barely topped over 150... not to mention that last minute push, pleading for folks to enter something... alot of folks also felt intimidated and felt their trees were not up to par with such an event...
So, I get all of this, and don't necessarily blame the host for this... However, if one is going to claim an event as being representative of American Bonsai, and put such a high bar out there to reach for, one needs to make damn sure you do everything humanly possible to do this! Instead, I feel the effort was no where close... and is shown in what was seen.
An event that had a very large talk, without the substance to back this claim... Sorry, this is just my feelings. I and others, felt left down... and I didn't want to feel this way. I want to be happy, it is awesome that we all have another possible event to do... and with time perhaps a lot of these issues will be resolved... I don't expect everything to always go right the first time... however this was quite a big "F-up", and was more important than if the stands that displayed the trees were angled, or the lighting was cool, if the displays had wood behind them, etc.... which is obviously what was more important to the host, than if the tree's shown actually held up to what the event claimed to be...
So, as we push forward, I think this fault will actually end up determining more what American Bonsai is, than what the host wanted to show... What is the saying? It's not always what you say, but what you don't say, that speaks volumes.