Jim;

Thanks for moving this thread. It's become rather cumbersome in the gallery.

I agree with your comments on art.

My basic question is ..... What is an artist?

My _personal_ interpretation of the word "artist", is a person who takes raw
materials and _creates_ something from within his/her imagination. A
sculptor creates from a lump of clay, a painter from a collection of paints,
etc.
If left untouched, the lump of clay will remain a lump of clay, bottles of
paint will remain nothing more than bottles of paint. No matter how long
they're left, they won't even apply themselves to the canvas.

I can hardly classify bonsai as an art form. If left on their own, our trees
will often turn themselves into something far beyond our human manipulative
capabilities.

In bonsai, we learn how to manipulate a living organism (even a seed) into
something that's pleasing to the eye. As bonsai practitioners we have some
control over things like trunk/branch size and shape. Through education and
practice we've learned how to grow a branch where we want one, form jin and
shari in eye pleasing spots, even bend trunks/branches/roots where we want
them, but we certainly can not control basic things like color and
flower/fruit size etc.

I consider bonsai to be the practice of horticulture on pot grown trees.
To create an eye pleasing bonsai, one first learns the rules (often laws) of
growth and manipulation.
Through study and practice, one learns how to apply these rules towards the
development of a tree that often takes a eye pleasing shape. However, leave
it alone for a year or two, and it's back to it's natural form, headed for
the wild.

Obviously, bonsai can't be considered an art form.

Maybe we should refer to ourselves as bonsai enthusiasts, technicians,
technologists, scientists, practitioners, engineers, even masters, but
artists???? Doesn't work for me.


Regards
Mark Hill - Harrisburg PA
Bonsai Enthusiast (read "In training")
Zone 6a



-----Original Message-----
From: Internet Bonsai Club ] On Behalf Of
Jim Lewis

snip

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

/snip

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