Good Day to All,

perhaps if one remembers the simple rule of the
pot being to the tree as the frame is to the painting.

AND the second simple rule of stimulating the
imagination through the use of a well designed tree.
Thus one would not need the props.

If a painting needs props to explain itself,it is a
failure.Same for a tree.

BUT if I put myself in the shoes of the early odd
tree collectors of China,way back when.I wonder if
we aren't losing the simple appeal that made the
folk of the past seek to take home the objects that
they found in nature ?
[Remember that the mind of man can contemplate
a pebble into an entity,given enough time.]

The problem with this so-called Modern World is that
for most it seems to be pointless to live.
Bonsai/Penjing/Painting requires of the individual some
cultivation of the mind,and I think it is waste trying to
pretend that all are equal in being able to appreciate a love
of nature or refinement.

There will always be greater or lesser than one's self.

Potters pot and seek to refine what they do.This is not
always compatible with functional use.
Perhaps this is why there are traditional shapes for
supporting trees.

Change should come from and through the tree,not it's
container,otherwise it is no longer Penjing/Bonsai.
Khaimraj
[ Caribbean/West Indies,
the drier lands]

*The paintings with Mr.Pall's trees worked because they
are decorative,flat and not mentally very challenging.You
focus on the tree.Were they [ the paintings]really needed,
or are eyes becoming so jaded as to what they should be
really looking at ????????


-----Original Message-----
From: Andy Rutledge
To:
Date: 31 July 2003 13:49
Subject: [IBC] Western Art (was: Pacific Rime exhibit)


----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Lewis"
snip
Personally, I'd like to see more "bonsai" displayed with artworks
from the same country. It seems a tad silly for us westerners to
ALWAYS display our trees with Japanese or Chinese art. Unless
we're all making cookie-cutter, Japanese-looking bonsai, they're
OUR trees, OUR designs, and should/could be displayed with OUR
art.
Jim Lewis
--------------------

Jim, your sentiment here is likely shared by many, including myself. For
instance, keeping in mind that the Japanese tokonoma, while based on
Japanese cultural decoration, also (mostly) obeys basic artistry - 3-point
display. This kind of display just _works_. So, why not a Western bonsai
display that also follows this basic artistic convention of 3-point display
(not at all Japanese) with something like:
- an scrub oak or mesquite bonsai (windswept) planted on a large slab
covered in sand
- a small animal skull surrounded by sand (as companion)
- an old, broken wagon wheel leaning up against the backdrop wall
or
- a bald cypress (individual or forest) planted on a slab (I like slabs ;-)
- a ceramic menagerie of alligator eyes, head crown and snout (configured
like one resting below the surface of the water, but looking at the world
above) arranged on a piece of black glass
- a branch, festooned with Spanish moss hanging (like the scroll) from the
backdrop

This is still very much in the context of "bonsai" and still very much
artistic (following basic rules of artistry and human perception) and very
much Western.

Kind regards,
Andy Rutledge
www.bonsai365.com/ :: living bonsai every day
zone 8, Texas


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