Category: Nature
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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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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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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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Bonsai and the Anthropocene
Bonsai practice represents an active and intense human-plant interaction that could, if it were to become more widespread, help to prevent climate change.
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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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Practical Magic
Is there a Tao of Bonsai? The recent article in the New Yorker about Ryan Neil prompted a closer look at the origins of bonsai, “practical magic” and the current relationship of Taoism to both art and bonsai.
