There Are No Rules (but What About Guidelines?) 12/8/14

Same tree, better photo. The original caption from a post two years ago started with: “Snakes. From Estação Bonsai on Facebook. I couldn’t find any mention of the artist….” We were none the wiser until someone offered this in the comments: “The first sabina juniper you mention is from Patrick Cremers..” Once we had a name it was easy to find the new photo (the original is below). However, I can’t tell if Patrick is the artist, the photographer, or just someone who posted this photo (confused yet?). Here’s a link if you’d like to explore further.

We’re a little swamped right now so we’ll fall back into our archives once again. This one is from almost exactly two years ago to the day. One good reason for picking it, aside from the trees, is the comments. In fact, one comment resulted in the discovery of a new lead photo (see above).

The old rules of bonsai, if they ever really existed, were broken as soon as they were made and the trend only gets more outrageous (in whatever sense you prefer: out·ra·geous: shockingly bad or excessive, wildly exaggerated or improbable, very bold, unusual, and startling).

 

As you can see, this common Privet (Ligustrum ovalifolium) belongs to Harry Harrington (Harry on facebook and Harry’s famous website). It was developed from an old hedgerow tree collected in 2004. At the risk of stating the obvious, it’s the way the pot (by Plilippe Torcatis by Victor Harris) and the base of tree play together that gives this one its cachet. BTW: there’s no sign of any live veins on the trunk. Must be hidden in back (We’ll not completely… see Andy Rutledge’s comment below)

 

This lonely persimmon is from the recent Taikan Bonsai Exhibition. I borrowed the photo from Bill Valavanis, who was there (Bill is everywhere) and who took the photo, along with a whole bunch of other photos. In any case, I’m scratching my head a bit about this one, though knowing how much Japanese people appreciate fruit and flowers on bonsai, I guess you could say it’s about being touched by fleeting beauty. Something like that.

 

This collected Norway spruce (Picea abies) belonged to Walter Pall when this photo was shot. I don’t think Walter considered it styled at this point, but there’s something about its flowing naturalness that I like. Walter traded it Mauro Stemberger who said, according to Walter, that “he wanted to ‘Italianize’ it and he did. Together with his friend he worked of three hours and the result (below) speaks for itself.” BTW: we featured Mauro’s bonsai just a few days ago.

 

The Spruce from just above, that belonged to Walter and now belongs to Mauro. Tamed a bit now.

 

Not a great photo, but a remarkably unusual tree. Like the one at the top of the post, it’s from Estação Bonsai and also unattributed.

 

The lead photo from the original post.