Jim: Your debate only makes sense by using semantic illusion. You have created a
definition of art to fit your argument. Durability is a rather novel criterion for
defining art. While you might find someone making that argument in an obscure
reference, durability is not a widely held criterion for defining art.
I believe all art is ephemeral. Change is the key constant in our
universe. (Well, along with death and taxes!)
Alan Walker, Lake Charles, LA, USA
http://LCBSBonsai.org http://bonsai-bci.com
==================================
Jim Lewis wrote:
I don't usually get involved in these "art" discussions, but here are my two cents
worth.
===
Glad you did. It's been dull here for months now.
===
I tend to agree with those who consider bonsai an art. As someone mentioned on the
gallery, there are good, bad, and mediocre artists, but
no mater which category the artist's creation falls into, the fact that
he/she is creating art makes that person an artist.
===
No way! "Bad" and "mediocre" bonsaiists are NOT creating art. A
painting isn't "art" because it's a painting. It is art because
it is GOOD!
(I've been doing bonsai almost 30 years. I have not -- and probably never
will -- created a "work of art." I DO have a few fairly nice trees. But art they
ain't.)
===
Regarding the statement that bonsai can't be considered art because it will
change if left alone; bonsai is a unique form of art in that the medium is living
and ever-changing, and must be maintained constantly. I don't believe that the fact
that a bonsai will deteriorate if not kept up negates the fact that it is a work of
art. If I remember correctly the paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel are
(or were) flaking off and deteriorating. They are only still there because of the
intervention of those who have stabilized and restored them. Does the fact
that they were deteriorating mean that these paintings are not art? I don't
think so.
===
Of course not. The picture and the vision always was there under the crud
of centuries. The Sistine Chapel paintings (now fully restored, but you STILL can
only view them in groups of 500 -- NOT the way it was intended they be viewed!)
never ceased being art.
That bonsai left in the back yard and watered by rainwater and grown wild,
with broken and dead branches may have been art once, but the vision is gone!
Someone may be able to take that tree and make it art once again, but IT WILL NOT BE
THE SAME ART. Gosh, if this wasn't true, Bonsai Today would be out of business with
all of its "masterpiece makeovers". ;-)
A bonsai that is art DOES have to be cosseted and maintained incessantly if
it is to keep on being art.
Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL

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