Andy Rutledge wrote:

Marty,

I don't agree at all. Bonsai, like most art, is an effort at
personification. What we idealize in nature has more to do with our own
human quality preferences than merely our idealizations of nature. In other
words, bonsai is about "us," rather than about trees. Trees are merely the
medium.

I love it. Real meat and potatoes stuff. I partly agree to this point, Andy. I
have come to find that bonsai is both about us AND trees. When I work on my trees
I am working on myself. And my trees. Yes, the trees are the medium, but we have
not created the medium. The living material is given to us, and it has limitations
as living material.

Your admonishment to approach our design preferences with humility is
perhaps out of context. Our humility might best be directed at those who
have worked on the tree before us rather than toward the common, average
aesthetics of nature. Bonsai is all about obviating averageness and
commonness. By your standard, the best bonsai is a tree in a pot to which
we've done nothing. Out of context IMO.

Kind regards,
Andy Rutledge
www.andyrutledge.com
zone 8, Texas

I don't think he's saying that, Andy, although I'll let Marty speak for himself. I
understood him to be saying that that our humility should be in the presence of
living material, in a sense, life itself.

BTW if you ever have a chance to see Marty's trees you'll know immediately that he
does not feel that "the best bonsai is a tree in a pot to which we've done
nothing."

Craig Cowing
NY
Zone 5b/6a Sunset 37

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