I was born in the middle 1950's. My father spent the Korean war stationed in Osaka, Japan 1951 -1952. During that time he befriended 2 Japanese national nurses. Every chance Dad had, he would travel the Japanese countryside taking photos of temples, scenery, forests, bamboo, and taverns, always accompanied by one of the nurses and one or more of their family members. (they were proper Japanese, he was never alone with them). One of the nurses which eventually moved to NYC. The other "Grace" stayed in the Osaka-Kyoto area. Around 1969 Grace visited USA to visit her friend in NYC, but she made a point of coming to Chicago to visit my father. She gave each one of us kids (5 all together) a gift, mine was a book of photos of bonsai, with english captions. Between that book and paging through dad's old photos of the temple and gardens, I got hooked on the idea of bonsai. My first "Bonsai Tree" that lived any length of time was a pomegranate that I bought before 1973. It was just a cutting. I kept it growing for 42 years. I made all the mistakes on it possible. I was entirely self taught, just reading books, magazines and the internet up until 2003. I looked at this then 30 years in my care pomegranate and realized it still looked like a shrub in a pot and not a tree, and not a bonsai. That is when I finally decided it was time to go get lessons. I joined the Milwaukee Bonsai Society, and started taking classes with Jack Douthitt, later Ted Matson, Colin Lewis, & Peter Tea. and a bunch of one day events in the years between. Eventually lost the tree, but it taught me a lot. Wish I had started with the classes sooner. I wish I had the humility to get classes back in the 1980s or 1990's. But better late than never. I thought I could learn everything from books, magazines and the internet. But this is a art, and you really need hands on instruction.
Not everyone lives close to resources, but if at all possible, take a class, or a one day seminar somewhere. Workshops are good. And there is a pretty good batch of Japan trained artists wandering the USA these days. A few hundred dollars and you can have quality time with one of them. Do that just a few times and you will see a tremendous improvement in your bonsai.
CLubs are uneven, some are good, some are great some are mediocre. Right now the Milwaukee Bonsai Society has a wealth of high level members that are great teachers and willing to teach, Brian S, Steve C, are two that are really doing a great job. Ron F and Pam W are also really making the effort. I can not praise the Milwaukee group enough. Very active and very high quality bonsai being done. THe Chicago group is similar though I am not as familiar with the Chicago group.
There was a club I visited more than 150 miles away from my home but less than 400 miles away from my home that was dominated by a blow hard know nothing, the result is, nobody in the club knew anything more than this blow hard. Members with talent got put off and quit, it was a collection of perpetual newbies that got loaded up with crap information. I visited this club's bonsai show every year or two for 2 decades. It took about 12 years, suddenly Mr Blowhard Know-Nothing was gone, the club had adopted Owen Reich as a visiting sensei and there was a new crop excited and interested members all learning bonsai the right way. Point of this paragraph,, not every club is great, and not every bad club is doomed to be permanently bad. Clubs are only as good as their members want them to be. So check out your local club. Get active. And if it is not as good of a club as you would like it to be; do what you can to help it become a better club.
