We have a winning judge
Remember our You Be the Judge & Good Things Will Happen Contest? The one where we were going to pick the short and sweet judges comments (on our Bonsai Art Contest) that we liked the most and award the winner a $30 gift certificate to Stone Lantern?

Well, after carefully deliberating, we have a winning judge. His name is Matt Cooke (Leland Garrett’s short and sweet comments were a close second, and we very much enjoyed Al Polito’s and Ken To’s not so short comments.

There were others we liked too, but that’s enough for now). Matt’s comments are below with his three selections (two of his selections happened to be the winner and the runner up; his third is his own entry of his girlfriend’s drawing). We’ve also included some other judge’s comments for your edification and enjoyment.

Patrick Giacobbe’s winner of our Bonsai Art Contest (entry F).

Matt’s comment: “Patrick makes his bonsai look like da Vinci’s work. beautiful artistry and very precise. Perhaps a mathematician at work, applying the golden mean (ratio) to his trees.

And some others
Leland Garrett : “Reminiscent of da Vinci’s The Vetruvian Man…but for bonsai.  Great combo of visual vs mechanical – left vs right brain type of thinking!”
Al Polito: “This work reminds me of DaVinci’s Vitruvian Man. The bonsai is rendered beautifully, and the various aspects of classical bonsai geometry are outlaid to demonstrate the principles of design that make a good bonsai.”
Ken To: “In my opinion, this is the most complex, sophisticated, and beautiful piece of bonsai art.  This one is my favorite because the artist was able to do so much with just one color, too many colors and it becomes distracting.  By using light and dark shade, the artist was able to add depth and definition to the tree, making it very life-like.  The tree itself is very beautiful, it is a classic example of a bonsai with nice taper, balanced branches, and well defined foliage pads.  I especially like how the other schematic-like drawings on the page carefully illustrate what goes through a bonsai artist’s mind when he/she examines a bonsai.  This contest is about bonsai art, and I think this piece is the epitome of bonsai art.”

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