All this critiquing...can someone show me a tree that is perfect

[Cadillactaste]

@music~maker I can see your direction...I guess I don't see a tree growing out as "not perfect" but one of health. I'm taking more of the bones...than the ramification process. But, it's all in the eye of the beholder.

My motto that many have read me say...At the end of the day, my backyard, my bench. And if it makes me happy...that is all that maters.

But...critiquing has helped better fine tune my own direction. I don't knock it per say...But, when one asks me my inspiration. I don't think I care to hear the faults. It's almost as if...I'm being lectured for appreciation of said tree. I'm sure that was meant to be done. (Honestly, I don't think mine was even critiqued. But I could senses that was the feeling some. And, I sort of "got it." That is when I was mulling over the thread that this one sort of formed from. That...no matter the tree in question...one may find fault. Because a perfect tree doesn't exist. It was like a light bulb...I wished to express to others through this post. That...trees have character...standing out next to another possibly because of it. It sets it apart...makes it unique.

 

[Adair M]

Even if a tree was perfect by some standard ... give it a season of unchecked growth and it goes back to being "not perfect". So if there is perfection to be had, it's in the moment, to a particular beholder. I might slave over a tree and create something that I think is perfect, and somebody else may come along and point out something they perceive to be a flaw.

Now that doesn't mean we shouldn't strive for perfection - it's how we get better. Always improve what you have from where you're at. But it's important to realize that there's always another level to achieve. Kind of like what @Adair M was getting at with analyzing the Kokofu winning trees - there's always something else that could be done, and the trees are always in motion.

Perfection, even if it could be achieved, would a very temporary thing when one is dealing with living things. That said, some trees really have been refined to such a degree that we look at them and they just take our breath away. But even then, if you stare at them long enough, you'll find something you would like to improve upon. Just the nature of the game, I think.

True.

When I was preparing my tree for the National Show, I timed the decandling so that the needles would be the perfect length. They were about 3/4 inch long. That show was in mid September. When I showed it at the Silohette show in early December they were longer, maybe an inch to an inch and a quarter. It still looked good, but not as good as it did at the Nationals.

 

[Smoke]

Here

 

[Grant Hamby]

Here

That's way more work than creating real bonsai, haha! That was actually pretty interesting though..

 

[milehigh_7]

Something that is too perfect is unsetteling and almost demented.

When I was a child my parents were very into Navajo culture. I was stunned and intrigued to learn even then that they purposely weave flaws into their blankets. To be to perfect, they believed, was an insult to the creator.

Or at least that's how I remember it...

 

[crust]

When I was a child my parents were very into Navajo culture. I was stunned and intrigued to learn even then that they purposely weave flaws into their blankets. To be to perfect, they believed, was an insult to the creator.

Or at least that's how I remember it...

As a young carpenter, eons ago, we use to call some small flaw in our work as our, "Indian bead". The native American story we were told was when beading moccasins a bead somewhere in the pattern was always left out to show our imperfection and avoid being sucked up into the sky with the Gods.

 

[milehigh_7]

For me a perfect tree is an oxymoron. Nature is far from perfect therefore the closer a tree gets to a perfect standard the farther it gets from nature therefore the less perfect it becomes because we strive to create bonsai that look like trees...

 

[MichaelS]

I don't think you are striving for "perfection" in bonsai. The entire concept of wabi-sabi is one of imperfection and impermanence. Patina... age through use... the visual representation of time.

I guess I would best describe it as evoking a strong emotional response through the presentation of imperfect things.

The best response so far. Yay!
I was going to say, ......true beauty lies in the imperfect.

 

[milehigh_7]

I will give you an example from music. A person can play a piece of music to perfection as it is written then an artist can take the exact same material and make something truely breathtaking.

Listen to this song from the night George Harrison and Prince were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Jeff Lynn's guitarist thought he was supposed to take the solos and he plays the first one to perfection as written.

Prince humbly took the last solo. Check this out, he NEVER practiced this song. He listened to it twice the day before and he had never played it before this night. Prince hears things that the rest of the people on stage just don't hear and it is not perfect because it veers from the written standard.

 

[amcoffeegirl]

love prince.

 

[ColinFraser]

"I hate to change the focus ... ."

That's not true. I don't mind doing that at all.

A critique is not a criticism. Critics criticize. That's their job. Artists critique one another's work. That's a whole different thing.

Criticism is inherently involved in the finding of fault. That's what it is. Finding perceived faults and expressing disapproval.
A critique is descriptive, often identifying both good and bad points/elements in a design/object/tree.

Don't confuse the two.

Artistically, we can all critique creations using the knowledge and understanding we have as individuals of differing backgrounds. We are not all alike, nor do we all have the same life experiences/training/whatever. We describe what we see, supported by what we know and believe.

Criticism is another matter entirely, and though it might be bolstered by the same life experience and training, it still comes down to approval or disapproval. In other words, an opinion. And like noses and other body parts, everybody's got one.

Critique my trees and I hope I learn something.
Criticize my trees and I'm free to receive your opinion and give it the treatment it deserves. Depending on my critique of your opinion.

This is a distinction without a difference (at least in the common usage), and equivocating in this way is counterproductive. No reasonable person thinks the only job of a film critic is to find fault with movies. If that were the case, "two thumbs up" wouldn't be a thing, only "thumbs down" ratings . . .

 

[Smoke]

"two thumbs up" wouldn't be a thing . . .

I'm thinkin after a couple beers this might be a trip to the emergency room.

 

[ColinFraser]

I'm thinkin after a couple beers this might be a trip to the emergency room.

"Hold my beer" haha

 

[Adair M]

I will give you an example from music. A person can play a piece of music to perfection as it is written then an artist can take the exact same material and make something truely breathtaking.

Listen to this song from the night George Harrison and Prince were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Jeff Lynn's guitarist thought he was supposed to take the solos and he plays the first one to perfection as written.

Prince humbly took the last solo. Check this out, he NEVER practiced this song. He listened to it twice the day before and he had never played it before this night. Prince hears things that the rest of the people on stage just don't hear and it is not perfect because it veers from the written standard.

I've heard a different story about that performance...

There was a rehearsal the day before the performance. Prince was supposed to play the two Clapton solo guitar riffs in the song, but Jeff kept playing them over Prince. Prince was irritated, and walked off the stage. Later he told them to let Jeff do the solos, he would do a solo at the end.

The night of the performance, the band had not heard Prince's solo until it happened.

 

[Soldano666]

So browsed thru this thread and diddnt see many examples. I guess Ill go out on a limb here. This is a larch I collected a couple years ago. cut back once at collection and once a couple weeks ago. Lots of bar branches =not perfect, not very thick trunk for a 24 inch tree=not perfect, some flaky bark not enough to be perfect, and the slightest hint of taper.but it was the perfect tree to dig with plenty of good enough attributes. Anyone that knows larch knows theyr straight poles with no taper, so maybe not perfect, but perfectly nautraulistic in shape, size , and a perfectly good start to train as a future bonsai. Soooooooo it may not meet certain standards to be perfect. But it was the perfect tree to dig that day, and the perfect tree to pursue a training plan for. I plan on wiring in 2018, but until then it seems pretty perfect for my level and goals to make something out of what was already almost perfect. Thoughts?

 

[MichaelS]

So browsed thru this thread and diddnt see many examples. I guess Ill go out on a limb here. This is a larch I collected a couple years ago. cut back once at collection and once a couple weeks ago. Lots of bar branches =not perfect, not very thick trunk for a 24 inch tree=not perfect, some flaky bark not enough to be perfect, and the slightest hint of taper.View attachment 142080but it was the perfect tree to dig with plenty of good enough attributes. Anyone that knows larch knows theyr straight poles with no taper, so maybe not perfect, but perfectly nautraulistic in shape, size , and a perfectly good start to train as a future bonsai. Soooooooo it may not meet certain standards to be perfect. But it was the perfect tree to dig that day, and the perfect tree to pursue a training plan for. I plan on wiring in 2018, but until then it seems pretty perfect for my level and goals to make something out of what was already almost perfect. Thoughts?

Nothing wrong with it.

 

[M. Frary]

Anyone that knows larch knows theyr straight poles with no taper

You can achieve taper through repeated cuts.
You need to start with low branches.
Cut to the lowest one.
Wire it up.
Let it grow until it's the proper thickness and cut at the lowest branch again.
It takes a while and I've just started doing it to a couple but they do grow fast.

 

[Potawatomi13]

the beauty of imperfection around us

Most wise and sage observation. Bonsai that move beyond cookie cutter perfect(refined)to display crooked, broken, dead wood, unusual bends and breaks, imperfect branch placement yet attractive to the humble and open mind seeing natural creation not some humans work in the pot. These to me are as close to perfect as one can get. Imperfect perfection/perfect imperfection.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Isn't this like asking for the perfect flavor of ice cream?

So many there are!

 

[sorce]

Thoughts

Don't perfuct it up!

______

I think we should all know the difference between a flaw and character.

I think the "bald spots" on the back of Japanese trees is a flaw.
I was disheartened to learn of that.

Sorce