Walter Pall wrote:
But I found that on many trees I had placed the apex right up in front. This looks fine from the ?front? but looks very unnatural from the ?side?. I have started to change this and move the apex back so that it is over about the center of the tree from ALL sides. The result is that I have a good feeling to look at the trees from all sides (which I am forced to do anyway!). But in addition also from the ?front? they look better somehow.
I've always wondered whether I am the only one being bothered by that displaced apex. With all the science behind it, it just bothered the heck out of me. All my instincts told me to push it back to where it belongs. (smiley).
I am glad that at least you said it out loud that it bothers you as well. May be there are many more out there, but they are just too embarrassed to admit it, for fear of being labelled as ignorants who can't grasp the true meaning of bonsai.
One thing is clear. Compared to the general artist community, nobody can accuse us of being too bold about new ideas. And that is an understatement. One little change in the design takes decades, if ever, to be accepted. And even then, the artist has to apologize for the rest of his life for that.
Can't help but think about a little book that I was reading yesterday, "
The A-Z of art - The World's Most Popular Artists And Their Work". The incredible diversity of representations just in painting alone is mindboggling. You can find every idea on the planet, and every other idea that is opposite to that. And they all are accepted and displayed in museums and collections, side by side. There is not one viepoint that dominates others. How different is that from bonsai, where diversity of opinions is utterly rejected!
Just take cubism. One of its characteristic feature is to show an object or a person viewed from different angles, and put together in one image. The eyes of a person are seen from the front, the nose is shown from the side, and you can also see the rear end of the person
in the same picture. When cubism was in vogue, this was accepted like a normal thing. Imagine if someone in bonsai came up with a similar idea!
Of course, for every innovation, there are countless failed attempts. But I suspect that the idea is less important than the successful and credible implementation of it. Any idea is good as long as you come up with a creative and witty solution.
So, instead of being outraged by an idea that seems impossible, try to put bonsai in the broad perspective of the world of arts. When you do that for a second, a few new ideas and changes in perspective will suddenly seem ridiculously insignificant. In our little world we squabble and bicker about changing the angle of a branch, while the world around us is changing with a lightning speed - whether we like it or not.