I Am an Artist
At our family reunions, many members of my family pick up guitars and banjos and sit around in a circle playing bluegrass standards and old country music favorites. They?re musicians. Actually, they?re bankers and construction workers and real estate agents. But their hobby, serious or casual, involves playing an instrument. Seldom, if ever, does anyone outside of the family hear them play, but ask them and they?ll tell you, ?Sure, I?m a musician.? It?s no great badge of honor; it?s just an accurate description. A musician is someone who plays music on an instrument.
My good friend Terry, before he died, was a poet. Seldom did a week go by that he didn?t put down something trivial or significant on paper; a few lines or a few pages that meant something to him and, perhaps, to others. He was published occasionally in some obscure newsletter or magazine, but mostly he wrote for himself, his family and his friends. But he was a poet, as he freely acknowledged if you asked. A poet is not merely someone who stands at a podium to read or recite at Presidential inaugurations. Poets write poetry, and that?s what Terry did quite regularly.
I am a bonsai artist. On a weekly or daily basis I perform artistic techniques and horticultural practices that help coax the bonsai in my care toward my vision of their future. I have a plan for what each of my bonsai should communicate, or at least what they should look like. So, in essence, I seek to use a small tree to create an image that speaks of something more than just being a small tree. I?m an artist, because that?s what bonsai artists do. It means nothing special for me to acknowledge that I?m an artist. It?s simply an accurate description.
So why all the fuss in our bonsai communities over what being a bonsai artist means? No kidding, too often we sound like a bunch of histrionic namby-pambies:
?Well, I?m not an artist. I just try to make decent looking bonsai.?
?I?ll be a bonsai artist when other people start telling me I am.?
?Ha! You?re no bonsai artist. An artist is someone like [insert name here]?
Baloney. Being an artist doesn?t mean that you?re someone who walks around in a beret and ascot, smoking designer cigarettes on a 14? filter. It just means that you work to make creative, communicative or evocative images, sounds or performances. It doesn?t mean that you?re a professional and it doesn?t mean that you?re even all that good. It just means that you practice artistry.
I believe that most of us in bonsai us who can?t bring ourselves to admit that we?re artists simply don?t want or can?t handle the responsibility that we believe comes with such a claim. And that?s too bad because it?s a silly aversion; one based on a fallacy. It?s time to put it to rest.
Too many of us are working the wrong side of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Too many of us have decided to wait until we?re really good artists before we decide that we?re bonsai artists. If this is you, I promise you ? you will never be a bonsai artist. You?ll never be one until you decide that you are one.
Every bonsai artist I know, every one of them I?ve ever met decided to be a bonsai artist. They didn?t wait to have the appellation bestowed upon them. They each admitted to themselves early on that artistry was what they were engaged in. They each also knew that this meant nothing special. It was just an accurate description of their endeavor. As a result, they were freed from the ridiculous baggage of illogic and delusion that too many of us saddle ourselves with, ?to our everlasting detriment.
Some of you may be familiar with the quote, ?get busy living or get busy dying.? Well, the spirit of that sentiment is appropriate in this context. You?re either a bonsai artist or you?re not. You?re either consciously trying to make bonsai art or you?re not. If you?re not, you?re a gardener. Good for you, but don?t confuse what you do with the art of bonsai. If you are trying to make bonsai art, you?re an artist. Acknowledge that fact and quit shying away from the term and the ideal.
I?m trying to make my bonsai more beautiful and evocative. I?m trying to improve the aesthetic quality of my bonsai. I?m not famous and I?m not a master. I?m a bonsai artist. What are you?
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