Vance Wood wrote:
Rob, respectfully I have to disagree with you putting the blame squarely on the demonstrator, certainly there is blame there. But did you read the accompanying article? Have you ever done one of these programs yourself?
Yes and yes.
Vance Wood wrote:
Let me give you a bit of an analogy. I pay for a ticket to a concert to hear So-and-so play the violin. I anxiously wait in line to get in, I anxiously wait for the show to commence and Maestro So-and-so comes on stage and explains that he has chosen PDQ Bach's partita with one part missing as his concert selection. But because the piece is so difficult and he can't find the other part he will only be able to play part of it. As a ticket holder what do you think of this?
The analogy is not relevant. Music is a performance art, so the expectation is to view a performance. Bonsai is a time phased sculptural art - no one in the know expects to see a finished bonsai at a demonstartion. After watching a demo you can go to the "exhibition room" and see what the finished results will yield. Use painting or carving as an analogy and you'll find them to be similar to bonsai. If you are enjoying a demonstration in these, the goal is to say"wow, that's how they do that."
Vance Wood wrote:
When someone goes to a convention to see Kimura, or Walter Pall design a tree masterpiece they do not want to be told half way through that this is all you get.
Oh but this is exactly what I have seen both Masahiko Kimura and Walter Pall say. I've have seen Mr. Kimura perform several times, and I've seen Mr. Pall too. Both work and get to a certain point and say "thats it for now." For instance in Atlanta in 1999, Mr. Kimura did his best to make 3 very nice starter trees look good, but he didn't repot the demo material, he explained how the pads were skimpy now but will fill out, how a branch needed to extend, and how they should be pinched, and how in a few years the tree could be prepared for an exhibition. While the trees looked good, they were not finished. I saw Mr. Kimura do a demo in Japan where he said he would continue next year after partially working on a 1,000 year only Ezo spruce.
And BTW, I have seen Kunio Kobyashi, Colin Lewis and host of other artists do similar work in a demo. In Florida it is understood that the tree will look nothing like the show version after a demo. Jim Smith, our statewide master, will do a demo and reduce a tree to its bare form cutting everything extremely hard to induce taper. He and the audience do not worry about making a finished tree. A favorite line of Ben Oki is to finish a demo by saying "That's the best I can do for now."
Vance Wood wrote:
So in this instance the ethical demonstrator gets to sit back on his ethics while someone else reaps the monetary rewards. So in the end you stand for something but you stand alone.
Masahiko Kimura and Walter Pall get rewarded for two main factors -- their tremendous portfolio of excellent trees that they have developed over time (not at demos) and have publicized very well and the very excellent demonstrations of technique that they perform when working on a tree in front of an audience that enables attendees to learn. That is why they draw top dollar (and top dollar is very relative, even Mr. Kimura's rate can't compare to appearance fees of top athletes and politicians.)
Vance Wood wrote:
You have of course heard the story about being outstanding in your field, parodied by the song which continues----in mud up to your knees?
I really don't know what this sentence has to do with the topic.