Hello Michael.
I have seen you post a few times about an interesting idea of originality in Bonsai. I am rather new to this form of art and hoping you could share photos of your trees. As I often see the Japanese form of Bonsai and would appreciate the visual input. Thank you.
Hi chicago1980,
I have been growing trees from scratch since the late 80's. I have always revered the Japanese way and have shaped my trees according to their set of aesthetic values for all but a few of those years.
These are examples of that......
:
http://www.bonsainut.com/threads/procumbens-re-worked.23854/
http://www.bonsainut.com/threads/some-juniper-maintenance.24207/
Because I like pines and junipers so much and because we don't have access to the yamadori type of trees they have in the northern hemisphere, I have needed to grow my own from seeds. This takes about 2 decades to get the kind of size which is satisfying enough to look at so I am just now starting to work on them. The last couple of years I have had an epiphany about the possibilities that we have in shaping trees like they really grow (I'm talking about conifers mainly now) and not some superficial idea on what ''looks nice'' to us. I believe that this is where the future of bonsai lies and also where the ''art'' of bonsai lies. I have also quickly realised that to achieve that elusive natural look will take much longer than what I have been doing so far. Longer because every tree instantly becomes a unique piece and not another copy of a thousand others for which the blueprint is well and truly set. There is no more blueprint. Every branch and every twig will need careful consideration as to placement and future growth. It will need a flexible plan from which we can go back and for future reference. As the growth of the tree will be the real master rather than the wants of the creator, there will be inevitable and unexpected changes to plan going forward. But the basics are that we will need to use a much less intrusion and probably much less use of wire.
By the way, this is not new idea and I am collecting many quotes from Japanese authors which support this idea. However, it seems that there is some difficulty among the Japanese with this concept because many references to ''natural'' form are still using the kind of image I now find artificial.
So, the trees that I have shaped using traditional (classic or modern or whatever) concepts will remain in that direction but with any new material I put my hands on now, I will go out of my way to avoid the stereotypical ''bonsai'' image.
In this thread .....
http://www.bonsainut.com/threads/new-directions-in-pines.25318/
I have tried to show what kind of direction I am taking with some material I have grown. There are many many others which I will post in the future. It is difficult to put aside pre conceived ideas and I'm just really starting.
There are few other people that I know of doing this. I wish there were more who would talk about it. Walter Pall has made some interesting in-roads with some of his trees.
