Has Nick gone too far and ventured beyond what you’d call bonsai with this early spring larch that promises summer shade for a cheap garden ornament? From Bonsai from the Wild by Nick Lenz.
Nick Lenz’ fertile imagination
Nick Lenz has been pushing bonsai boundaries for a long time. The planting above is just one example of his fertile imagination. However, a friend of mine says that what Nick is up to is just vain eccentricity and has no real meaning as far as bonsai goes. As for me, well, root-over-tank (below) always makes me smile, and maybe that’s good enough (BTW: in addition to his ‘vain eccentricities’ Nick collects and styles plenty of simple and remarkable uneccentric bonsai)
Dan Robinson’s raw and rugged trees
I won’t say too much about Dan’s trees (because so many of you have already said it in the comments from the last two posts), except that some are so raw that they seem to be begging for work, while others are simply perfect in their natural ruggedness.
Bonsai? Or simply a dug up old tree in a bonsai pot? Many of Dan Robinson’s trees are so raw that some might say they are more potential than fully realized bonsai. I have no idea where the border is between potential bonsai and bonsai. Or, even if it matters. Bald cypress by Dan Robinson from the gallery chapter in Gnarly Branches, Ancient Trees by Will Hiltz.
Root-over-tank Chinese elm by Nick Lenz. From The Art of Bonsai Project.
“Has Nick gone too far and ventured beyond what you’d call bonsai with this early spring larch that promises summer shade for a cheap garden ornament?”
No need to insult sweet Penelope by calling her a cheap garden ornament!
Sorry Alan and apologies to Penelope.
You can call it eccentric or maybe just a good sense of humor. But think for a moment of all those far away places with ruins from ancient civilizations and what do you find? Strangler figs in most cases growing around temples and statues. Should Bonsai mirror nature? This debate will never end. In my humble opinion this particular piece was tasefully done. Thanks for the pictures!
I believe its Pauline (also known as Paulette), as in Bonaparte, rather than Penelope. The original is in the Galleria Borghese, Rome, titled Venus Victrix, by Antonio Canova.
Ha! Thanks for posting that tree, Wayne. Is it a bonsai? Is such bonsai art? What I do know is that it is a thing of great beauty, and it was a joy to capture its wild abandon on film and publish for the world to enjoy.
For the purposes of keeping Dan’s hundreds of trees straight in my mind during the several years of photography, I gave most of them nicknames: This was “Wild Hair Cypress”.
Dan has a lot of trees in pots or on slabs that are in various stages of refinement, and I included some trees in very early stages in the gallery for various reasons. I have no idea whether he plans to “do more” with the styling on this one, but I suspect he does. And yet, I’m happy to have captured it just the way it is.
It is interesting to know that, while people think of Dan as a “bonsai artist” or a “landscape architect”, he has always thought of himself as a “tree guy”. Trees are his passion, and bonsai and landscaping are merely two manifestations of that passion. He would simply call this “a great tree,” and appreciate it as it is.
I think Nick Lenz and Dan Robinson are truly American artists. We have always been a people prone to breaking away, pushing limits, establishing our own culture in our own way. Mark Twain did it with Tom Sawyer, jazz and its offshoots began here, and in every other art form we have developed innovative, and often raw approaches that seem untamed compared to those of older cultures. It’s who we are. It was inevitable that American bonsai artists would break away into American styles at some point, and that there would be such controversies when they did.
“But I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me and I can’t stand it. I been there before.” (Closing lines from Twain’s Huck Finn)
Thanks Peter,
And agreed. Nick does have a sense of humor. Those ruins with strangler figs are usually tropical. It’s hard to imagine a larch behaving in such a way in nature. But that’s okay with me, Nick can do pretty much whatever he wants.
Thanks Mike,
I wonder if Antonio had a sense of humor.
Thanks again Will,
Tree guy. Yes, I can relate to that.
Yeah, Dan and Nick and others do seem to express a certain American sensibility, though I’m sure you’d agree that we don’t completely own that approach to bonsai, especially the innovative part. I’m thinking particularly of Indonesia (Robert Steven and friends, though there are differences) and of course to some degree much of the world. Still, I get your drift, there is something particularly American (that’s not surprising, we are in America) going on and, of course, I would never argue with Huck Finn.
Hi Will again,
Almost forgot the most important part. Yes, that Bald cypress is spectacular. Great tree. Great photo. Thanks.
Wayne, my art history profs did not delve into that aspect of the artists’ lives. I think Mr. Lenz should try “Apollo and Daphne,” Bernini’s sculpture based on Ovid’s Metamorphosis, at the same museum. Apollo becomes enamored of Daphne. She doesn’t respond, and flees Apollo’s advances. When he catches her, and first touches her, she starts turning into a tree. The sculpture shows her hair and hands turning into leaves, her skin into bark, and her feet into roots. That would be a challenge worthy of Mr. Lenz’ amazing talent.
Thanks Mike,
Good idea. I wonder if Nick reads this.
In a world where we have “experts” (on 60 Minutes) telling us a line of urinals on the wall is “Art”, who are we to quibble over a ‘root-Over-Tank” bonsai?
Hey, if you don’t like it, you don’t have to save a copy of it.
In addition to his more whimsical creations, Nick has done a lot for the art and technology (his book on bonsai from the wild is great, and a real help).
I remember one he did with a house for a garden toad built in, and one with a wrecked volkswagen, and another with mini beer cans.
Hey, Nick is a Wrys-Ass! He would have us not take ourselves so seriously (how is this vain?)
Hi Terry,
Thanks. Agreed and no problem. Nick is one of my favs. But then, my friends are entitled to their opinions and questions about boundaries provide fuel for debate.