It's been a while since I've posted here and it's been a while since I've had an interest in this art. But it's good to be back. About a year ago I started going through some hard ships that took all of my time and mental energy. I lost my desire to take care of my collection. I didn't want to try to sell my collection off piece by piece and I didn't want it to just wither away either because of my lack of interest. Eventually I called a local bonsai friend and let him name a price for the entire collection pots and all. It all belongs to him now save my giant crape myrtle that he kindly agreed to take care of for me should my situation change. And I hung on to one pine tree that may or may not survive....
My situation has changed along with my mind set concerning any collection I may or may not have in the future. Before I was willing to take on any plant material that had potential and hope that in 5 - 10 years I would have something worth displaying. I had this mind set for 10 plus years. I would spend so much time and money developing material with potential that I rarely reached my goal. While I found pleasure in this approach my time off from the art has allowed me to reflect on it in a more detached way. It helped me realize that that isn't what I really wanted out of this art at all. I want the kind of trees you see displayed at the best shows. The kind of trees that have been fussed over for years and years and hours and hours to get every detail just right. The kind of trees that spark your imagination and inspire.
Moving forward I will need to accept that I may only have one tree (or if I am lucky a few) for the rest of my life to avoid cluttering my new mindset in bonsai with material that ultimately just distracts me from refining the best of the best of what I've got.
Maybe I'm at the point where one goes from collecting as many trees with potential as possible in order to satisfy some egotistic desire, to actually focusing solely on the art for the sake of the art and for the art alone....
Anyone else ever felt this way?
My situation has changed along with my mind set concerning any collection I may or may not have in the future. Before I was willing to take on any plant material that had potential and hope that in 5 - 10 years I would have something worth displaying. I had this mind set for 10 plus years. I would spend so much time and money developing material with potential that I rarely reached my goal. While I found pleasure in this approach my time off from the art has allowed me to reflect on it in a more detached way. It helped me realize that that isn't what I really wanted out of this art at all. I want the kind of trees you see displayed at the best shows. The kind of trees that have been fussed over for years and years and hours and hours to get every detail just right. The kind of trees that spark your imagination and inspire.
Moving forward I will need to accept that I may only have one tree (or if I am lucky a few) for the rest of my life to avoid cluttering my new mindset in bonsai with material that ultimately just distracts me from refining the best of the best of what I've got.
Maybe I'm at the point where one goes from collecting as many trees with potential as possible in order to satisfy some egotistic desire, to actually focusing solely on the art for the sake of the art and for the art alone....
Anyone else ever felt this way?
Last edited: