My thoughts...take them or leave them:
1. I was not there so I cannot comment on anything from a live perspective.
2. If Ryan did put up his own money...props to him. I know very few people who have personally invested that much into bonsai...respect.
3. The show was attempting to be something different and it appears that it was. Some will like it, some won't. I humbly think diversity inspires creativity and a new way of looking at things which can only increase the quality of bonsai. Ryan has said from the beginning that it's his desire that American bonsai would become something unto itself entirely...for that to happen, you gotta change things up a bit.
4. This was the first time for this show. Anyone who has tried to pull off something even close to this size knows that you learn things along the way and my guess would be that we will find the next Artisans' Cup more refined. Could we perhaps cut the team a little slack?
5. There are relatively few trees that could be claimed to be "completely your own work". That would mean growing the tree from seed or collecting it yourself. While they definitely exist, many trees have been workshopped, or acquired from others at some point. Very few trees have a single artist's stamp on them. While I'm not necessarily in favor of people buying trees, submitting them in a competition within 6 months, and then winning an award (seems kinda lame to me), it happens everywhere. Very few trees in the Kokufu are owned by those who styled them. I think of it as the tree winning the award and not the owner.
6. My guess would be that (because of cost) a high percentage of the trees submitted were from WA, OR, and CA and therefore a high percentage selected were from these areas. The further away you live, the more cost-prohibitive a submission and trip to Portland becomes.
7. If you don't want to submit a tree because of cost, fear of damage, etc. don't. I don't see that a sufficient reason to call into question the process for doing it.
8. I don't know what the solution to this is but it does seem that, for someone to be involved in this event you gotta have some dough. I would love to see something that is truly accessible to the common man/woman. I know that doing something like this "right" is costly, but perhaps "American Bonsai" in it's purest sense is bonsai that is accessible to more than just those who have $2,000 to drop on a weekend. I'm not talking about socialism but the "American Dream" is "with hard work, anything is possible". There must be a way to make study and observation of high-level bonsai affordable. Perhaps some endowed scholarships for attendance at the Cup or study with high-level artists based on current effort would be appropriate? Once this event becomes financially sustainable, I would love to see some of the proceeds go toward this sort of thing.
All in all, I'm grateful to Ryan and his team's efforts to raise the quality of bonsai in America. While not all may agree with his approach, my humble opinion is that rather than throwing stones, we should either help to improve the event ourselves or try to pull one off in a way that is consistent with our own bonsai values. It's easy to point fingers when you haven't tried to do it yourself. This was a monumental effort and I for one am grateful for it. Was it done perfectly...probably not. Was it a step in the right direction...I think so. Is bonsai in America going to increase in quality as a result of the Artisans' Cup...probably.
Just in case anyone cares what I think...probably not...
