By the way, the idea in bonsai that the pot is like the "frame"
of a
painting is not one that I support. I rather believe that the
job of framing
the work is best performed by the stand. The pot is the
soundtrack. The pot
establishes the entire mood. The tree just supports it. Screw
up the pot and
nothing about the bonsai will work.


On a more serious note (brace yourself, Andy), I tend to agree
with Andy here. Especially in the smallest trees -- the ones _I_
prefer -- the pot plays a much more important role than merely as
a "frame." The wrong pot can entirely spoil a tree. I notice
immediately when a tree is in a pot that (I think) is too large,
or too small. I also react when the color is wrong for the
tree -- though I may think about it for a moment in case there's
something the grower was trying to tell me that I missed (and
oftentimes, there probably was, but still a bright red pot and a
Japanese black pine doesn't do it for me -- maybe the torii
gateway?;-).

But is it the stand that is the frame, or the overall environment
in which the tree is displayed? I doubt that most of us have
spent a whole heckuva lot of money to have THE stand for each
tree. (It's easier for me, of course, since my stands are
measured in centimeters, rather than inches. But even here,
witness the query I put on the gallery about the lotus leaf
stand; good ones cost! That one, I was told, would cost several
thousand dollars!) For me, at least, the frame for the tree is
the stand and the table, and the background on and against which
the tree is viewed.

Our local show, for example, is always outdoors. The setting is
lovely -- the sculpture garden of our local art center -- in
whose education wing we have our monthly meetings. But the
green, busy background is a terrible one for our bonsai. We have
taken to putting bamboo screens behind all the tables to mute the
lack of contrast, but that always looks makeshift.

This is, I think, why virtually all of the major Japanese
exhibits are held indoors (against plain, white walls on which
kakemono can be hung) and the few that are outdoors display the
trees in individual, sheltered alcoves -- miniature tokonoma.

In most of our shows, the table is too low. also, and viewers
have a god-like view that looks _down_ on the trees. NOT the
best frame!

We westerners don't have built-in "frames" for our trees as do so
many of the old-style Japanese homes -- the tokonoma. In my
house, I've set aside a corner with a Sendai chest that I use for
display of my netsuke and (usually) one of my trees (there's a
recent "think small" {or something like that} discussion on the
gallery, showing the corner). That seems to work (for me).

Anyway, Andy (as usual) led this discussion in an unsuspected
direction. I thought I was going to see something on Walter's
"naturalistic" style vs. "cookie-cutter" (or something). ;-)

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - The phrase
'sustainable growth' is an oxymoron. - Stephen Viederman

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