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The Coast Live Oak: Inspiration for Bonsai Design
The Coast Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia) thrives along the Pacific Coast, typically within 50 miles of the shoreline. It’s an evergreen with a rounded canopy and thick trunk. Notably, coastal live oaks are showcased in bonsai exhibitions, reflecting their intricate natural form and unique aesthetic inspired by their native habitat…
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A Guide to Seeing Bonsai
The article emphasizes the importance of observing bonsai art with focused attention to enhance appreciation and understanding. It suggests taking time to engage with individual trees at exhibitions, rather than comparing them. Practical tips are provided, including analyzing proportions, lines, materials, color, and unity to fully appreciate the artistry in…
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American Bonsai or Bonsai in America?
What is “American Bonsai” and how should the ABS define “Native” in the context of American Bonsai as an art form?” – Susan Daufeldt, ABS Newsletter editor.
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Judgement Day
There is no bonsai exhibition judging system that will satisfy everyone. But can we do better?
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The Influence of the West on the Development of Japanese Bonsai
Recent articles suggest that Japanese bonsai originated around 200 years ago, and that Western ideas influenced its development.
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Trade Zone
I am reposting this Review of the 2022 Pacific Bonsai Expo in honor of this weekends PBE 2024 at the Henry J. Kaiser convention center in Oakland California. The inaugural Pacific Bonsai Expo was held at the Bridgeyard, an industrial site adjacent to the Port of Oakland, on a strip…
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Scale and Bonsai (Not that kind of scale…)
An awareness of not just the size of a bonsai but also of the relationship of bonsai size to the viewer significantly enhances our appreciation of bonsai art.
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Bonsai Inspiration: The Woodblock Prints of Kawase Hasui
Kawase Hasui’s art inspired Steve Jobs and many others. What can bonsai artists learn from his work?
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Repotting Season – Bonsai as an Aesthetic Practice
It is this cycle, this rhythm of stress and then recovery and the tree’s “memory” of these events, as embodied by its form, that leads to the creation of great, old bonsai… Walter Scott The changing of the seasons signals to bonsai practitioners that it is time to perform a…
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Nine of the Best Books about Trees and Art for 2024
If bonsai = (nature + art), multiplied by time, then the books listed here are truly “bonsai books”. Their subjects range from art, aesthetics, and creativity, to our relationships with trees and trees’ relationships with each other. The Creative Act: A Way of Being, by the music producer Rick Rubin,…
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Bonsai Ethics
“Ethics – moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the conducting of an activity” – Encyclopedia Britannica, online edition, September, 2023 Introduction The main area of ethical concern that comes to mind when I think about bonsai art is that of harming living things. I examine this here in…
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Appreciating Bonsai as Aesthetic Objects
Bonsai are complex aesthetic objects, how do we appreciate them?
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Peace Trees
Trees have been associated with peace for many years. Explore these relationships on World Bonsai Day.
