OK, Jim, I'll bring my comments over here, too. Maybe we should import the
other relevant posts as well?
My commentary:
I'm not sure what your point is, Brian. It doesn't seem quite accurate to
state, "In order for there to be patrons of art, the art in question has to enter
the realm of mainstream." I agree that mainstream appeal increases demand and
relative value. Lack of mainstream appeal, however, doesn't necessarily mean there
are no patrons, just that it is cheaper to be a patron.
As you infer, bonsai is different from most art in that it is so high
maintenance, and the skills to maintain are derivative as well as supplementary of
those needed to create bonsai. For this reason, the patron who lacks, or lacks
access to, horticultural skills will be reluctant (or foolish) to invest great sums
of money into artwork which can easily perish and lose all of its value. Investors
everywhere know that commodities are relatively risky investments requiring skill,
knowledge and luck to earn favorable results. Bonsai are commodities with compound
and complex risks which are not typically addressed in our culture or educational
programs, ergo there is no large pool of patrons in western culture to invest. I'm
grateful to every patron of bonsai for taking those risks, irregardless of motive.
Is bonsai art? Bonsai certainly meets the dictionary or textbook definition
of art as "an esthetically pleasing and meaningful arrangement of elements, as
words, sounds, colors, shapes, etc.; also the productions embodying such
arrangements."
Personally, I think so, and that's all that really matters to me. Of course,
bonsai is necessarily more than art. (No need to delve further into the obvious
here.)
Alan Walker, Lake Charles, LA, USA
http://LCBSBonsai.org http://bonsai-bci.com
===============================
Jim Lewis wrote:
There is a very long, hard-to-read, discussion on the gallery about the difference
between a bonsai "collector" and an "artist." It ties in with one of Andy's BT
Online editorials also.

As discussions tend to do, it has wandered a bit, and as the thread is getting a bit
long and slow loading on the gallery maybe we can move it here (if we want). The
list has been very slow lately, anyway.

Here's MY contribution at the end of the thread:

Ernie wrote:
There are people who give more credit to Mother Nature than themselves and
therefore refused to call themselves artists. Does that make them bigots? Does
repeating "I am an artist" a hundred times a day make one an artist?

No.

One is an artist or one is not. An artist would create a "work of art" in whatever
medium he or she tried (assuming the presence of the requisite skills).

And, Bonsai, per se is NOT an art -- I don't care how many time an insecure person
declares that it is.

An individual bonsai MAY be called a work of art at some given time, but left to
itself and becoming overgrown or with branches that were allowed to die, is it still
a work of art.

Hell no!

An individual may create numbers of trees of artistic merit and therefore earn
himself a label -- bonsai artist. For him -- as long as he keeps on working in
bonsai (and doesn't move on to become an artist in the field of bronze sculpture, or
something else) bonsai may be considered an art.

For most of us, bonsai is a pastime, a hobby, an avocation, a business, or a craft.
If we have the ability to make a nice tree, does that make us an artist? I don't
think so -- no more than the blue-haired old lady at the Senior center who can put
out decent seascape painting after seascape painting can
legitimately be called an artist.

However, many of us can aspire to "mastering" bonsai as a craft -- and attaining
journeyman status. And indeed, when we put the label of "master" onto someone
skilled in making little trees, we are speaking the language of craftsmanship.
And there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT!
Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL

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