Cosmic Bonsai - First Attempt

[Deep Sea Diver]

Just some thoughts @cishepard. I admire your efforts to explore ways to achieve a different aesthetic. I highly encourage you to keep working on it.

One comment I read above that did strike home from a basic principle of artistic design. That is the principle of unity throughout the design. If one looks at Laurent’s work one will see the trunks are as wildly curved as the branches... creating unity in his designs. No matter what one does to design a tree, they should at least adhere to the principles and elements of design to maximize the aesthetic value of a design.

btw Laurent actually says he changed the name of Burton bonsai technique to Cosmic Bonsai due to not wanting to get sued by Tim Burton.

If Laurent actually copied the Octopus aesthetic he took the design to a higher level and at least gave it a goal and kept the trees healthy while doing so.

There are plenty of valid points here and a good discussion of breaking away from and distaste for the cookie cutter Japanese model. Yet once at an exhibition (from my perspective) trees are generally judged mostly on adhering to key principles and elements of Japanese bonsai design. (Also awards are mostly given to those who have professionals style and coif their trees, but that’s beside the point).

Folks may differ in their aesthetic taste, yet no matter how far they seem to stray, folks always seems to devolve to utilizing a core of these elements. Maybe that’s the extent our art can be taken.…. Dig up a tree, do something wild to it, then bring it back into the Japanese wheelhouse.…is this different, or just a variation on a theme. If that’s the extent of bonsai as an art, it’s a crying shame.

Dave De Groot said something along these lines, “If an artist does something unconventional and folks like this, the artist makings variations on this theme. At this point each becomes a crafting project.” Sound familiar? r ar

As much as folks want to change, the majority keep pushing away folks that somehow don’t meet these criteria. In an echo from the past it’s no wonder Dan Robinson was not invited back to the big SoCal exhibitions after demoing his chainsaw technique to the dismissive crowd there years ago. Only to laud Kimura for doing the very same thing 20 years later, but with a Japanese vs naturalistic finish.

One step forward and another back. Status quo preserved once again.

Or as Yogi Berra said, “It’s Deja vu all over again!”

cheers
DSD sends

 

[Potawatomi13]

Personally believe trees are Spruce rather than Douglas Fir .

 

[eplov90]

I listened to the Mirai podcast with Laurent -- it sounds like may have listened to it too @Deep Sea Diver -- and it was a fascinating conversation that touched on many of the comparisons that @rockm brought up in this thread. He is definitely a prickly character but his ideas and commitment to them are very interesting and it definitely has me curious enough to take one tree and experiment with it. The one element I still can't wrap my head around is the idea of never slowing down the bonsai or moving into refinement. I understand it rationally but it's hard to picture in practice.

I will definitely be following your project @cishepard and will share my own once it is underway.

 

[Cadillactaste]

there's really nothing new under the sun...The archaic "octopus" style of bonsai was practiced in Japan and China for a while in periods before they opened up to the west. It is very similar (or identical, without the accompanying display items). The octopus style was eventually mostly abandon by Japanese artists because they emphasized the grotesque at the expense of "natural." Also, from what I'm reading this method emphasizes non-traditional display elements (battlebots, etc) as an integral part of compositions.

Book Review: ‘Cosmic Bonsai – Burton Style’

‘Cosmic Bonsai – Burton Style’ by Laurent Darrieux This is not a book on how to create Bonsai, nor is it a book for anyone starting in the art-form. However, if you want to understand what goes on …

yamadori.co.uk

But did they use the scarring technique? That's what I see that makes it stand out.

 

[cishepard]

A couple more years went by, the trees responded with lots of healthy growth at the apex and on most the branch ends, and I realized that they are spruces of some sort, not firs, as the new growth was stiff, prickly and decidedly spruce-like.

I agree, @Potawatomi13 , they are spruces.

 

[cishepard]

I don’t have a recent photo of the Cosmic Spruces, and the trees are all huddled under the benches for the winter right now.. After I unwired them, they didn’t look too impressive. Kind of like ordinary spruces with wavy branches. I think the bends were just not extreme enough, and of course, the straight trunks ; )
A few of the branches died from the twisting.

I got discouraged and did not re-wire them, but I’m not totally ready to give up. I’ll see what the new year brings and update the thread with photos. I originally thought that scarifying the trunks would create an interesting visage, so maybe that is the next step or perhaps it is time to experiment with some extreme bending …

I am pleased, though, that this thread is revived - it is certainly an interesting re-read! And maybe some more “Cosmic Bonsai” projects will come about, I so hope : )

 

[Cadillactaste]

I don’t have a recent photo of the Cosmic Spruces, and the trees are all huddled under the benches for the winter right now.. After I unwired them, they didn’t look too impressive. Kind of like ordinary spruces with wavy branches. I think the bends were just not extreme enough, and of course, the straight trunks ; )
A few of the branches died from the twisting.

I got discouraged and did not re-wire them, but I’m not totally ready to give up. I’ll see what the new year brings and update the thread with photos. I originally thought that scarifying the trunks would create an interesting visage, so maybe that is the next step or perhaps it is time to experiment with some extreme bending …

I am pleased, though, that this thread is revived - it is certainly an interesting re-read! And maybe some more “Cosmic Bonsai” projects will come about, I so hope : )

The risk of losing branches is why my Tim Burton Acer...will get a nod to Cosmic but not full on. I respect that tree to much to experiment on it. it's clearly not wired as a common maple.

That said...I've a delicious neagari elm I can't wait to feed and go full on cosmic. I can see it...the direction in my head. I just need it to grow and allow me something to wire. As it was pruned for auction I'm most certain.

I vote for that scarring of the trunk. To me...it's the most visual impacting and adds weight and balance to the chaos around it.

 

[MaciekA]

This style is not for me. With that said, when I started out in bonsai, I said exactly the same thing about Japanese trees (and other bonsai in similar styles) which were heavily refined/ramified. I misinterpreted those trees as somehow "too traditional / rules based" and wrong-looking. What I realized later on as I studied under my current teachers was that they were the same trees I was actively trying to learn to create, just iterated upon for years and years to get significant ramification, kept sustainable against self-shading, etc. They were so insanely beyond the coarse material I was looking at at the time that I just couldn't interpret them as anything remotely attainable or even the product of human hands -- now I know that coarseness and wiring eventually gives in to fineness and scissor work. And also that techniques applied over time can yield natural-feeling results. I'm specifically thinking of things like junipers and japanese beech that are in the kokufu albums, which with my newer bonsai eyes look both awesome and attainable to me now.

Laurent's whole singular-personality-associated-with-this-genre vibe is a little challenging, BUT -- you have to admit that comes with the territory of any art scene and sometimes people who have unusual character traits do create some spectacular artwork and interesting conversations. I mean, I've enjoyed quite a few songs written by a Norwegian black metal artist that I only later discovered was a convicted murderer... and yet the songs still sound good to my ears. I couldn't unhear what I liked about them. To me they stand independent of the artist, and Laurent's trees will too. And folks who try the cosmic style are insulated from his personal ideosyncrasies. (edit: I'm also sort of the mind that the infinite art fractal already exists, out there, in the possibility continuum -- we're just discovering it / mining it. It won't be Laurent's style forever)

I'm going to try hard to avoid my initial reaction to this style and instead watch and learn what this process yields as @cishepard iterates on it in the coming years. I feel that where there is bending and shari being repeated year after year, there are lessons to be learned and interesting conversations to be had. Both about aesthetics and technical nerdcore. While I don't plan on doing this style myself, some technical elements of it do relate to the more caligraphy-leaning freeform bonsai styles, and certainly relate to the early puzzle-tree phase of building out juniper trunks. We can relate on multiple levels.

I think @Deep Sea Diver made a really good point above which gives a good suggestion on how to start to interpret trees created in this style and maybe rank their level of quality -- observe the patterns of process art (or art process) and the motifs within the art and see how internally-consistent the artist is with those motifs. I think we can all agree that when we come across an artwork that shows a meticulous iterative process, we can relate, even if it is cephaloid in nature. I'd be hard pressed to look at (say) some of Kazuo Onuma's wild twisted junipers-in-progress, which I absolutely love, and conclude I can't relate to the process in cosmic bonsai at all. It is true, Kazuo and his customers will take a different offramp and style pads and later structures in a different way from Laurent's methods, but still. There is common ground to be had here and we can't skewer innocent downstream practitioners for the missteps of the style's progenitor.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Seems like there are two parts to this conversation that depend upon each other… and I admit to be constrained by both when discussing this topic too, despite working to overcome each

1. Extent of one’s personal knowledge of bonsai design

2. Depth of one’s knowledge of the history of bonsai design. Here’s where presentism comes in. it can have two sides. Evaluating the past work from one’s place in time… and feeling what’s considered great now is what will be considered great in the future.

btw: I really appreciated I think it was @rockm post with this link to this ABS article It was great to see and encourage folks to read through it. It’s certainly not complete, but a great introduction.

One should keep in mind what was is in vogue now, won’t necessarily be in vogue in the future. A good example, harking back to Wilson’s visits to Japan to find exciting new varieties of azaleas. He found an interesting design in vogue. The Umbrella was the star….



….refined Japanese design didn’t really take off until wire was available and put in use around 1910-1920… especially when annealed copper arrived. (… the Chinese were doing some amazing things even before this)

Finally the real more modern stylistic refinements didn’t occur until 1970-1990…a shas through Kokofu books of the past reveals startinglu design changes…. So relatively recent.

Naturalistic design perhaps 1960.

Whether we choose to embrace new styles or not, the art continues to evolve by fits and spurts.

cheers
DSD sends

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Here's my "cosmic" bonsai I've been working on for a few years. I've been working on removing the coarse thick branches, and developing the ramification. This is a contorted hazelnut aka "Harry Lauder's Walking Stick". Note that no branch has ever been wired on this tree - I have been developing it solely via structural pruning.

 

[Cadillactaste]

Here's my cosmic bonsai I've been working on for a few years. I've been working on removing the coarse thick branches, and developing the ramification. This is a contorted hazelnut aka "Harry Lauder's Walking Stick". Note that no branch has ever been wired on this tree - I have been developing it solely via structural pruning.


View attachment 524605

I love the species. Have a huge one in my landscape. But I will stand on...the fact that cosmic design is more than contorted/twisting branches. It's way more...it's the artistically placed scarring. That draws me to the style. That Laurent does...these are Hervé Dora 's image of his work. This...is Cosmic design at its best...in my honest opinion.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

I listened to the Mirai podcast with Laurent -- it sounds like may have listened to it too @Deep Sea Diver -- and it was a fascinating conversation that touched on many of the comparisons that @rockm brought up in this thread.

Actually only listened to the first half… listening to the second part now.

Here's my cosmic bonsai I've been working on for a few years. I've been working on removing the coarse thick branches, and developing the ramification.
View attachment 524605

Nice project. Not in the cosmic bonsai wheelhouse though, if there is a wheelhouse yet.

From what I gain so far Larent does ever trim, but does do a bit of wiring

Best
DSD sends

 

[penumbra]

I have to say that I love the Cosmic (or Octopus if you prefer) style of bonsai. But then I tend to love all bonsai styles, which to my mind recognizes and legitimizes this as a valid principle of bonsai design. I do feel that the bonsai world can only benefit from new ideas and methods as introduced by this style and many others.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

I love the species. Have a huge one in my landscape. But I will stand on...the fact that cosmic design is more than contorted/twisting branches. It's way more...it's the artistically placed scarring. That draws me to the style.

I probably should have put it in quotes I was trying to have fun with the concept... but I should not have confused people into thinking I was actually trying to replicate that style.

 

[Cadillactaste]

I probably should have put it in quotes I was trying to have fun with the concept... but I should not have confused people into thinking I was actually trying to replicate that style.

Yeah...I'm quite the literal thinker. Jests are sometimes lost on me.

 

[gooeytek]

Here's my "cosmic" bonsai I've been working on for a few years. I've been working on removing the coarse thick branches, and developing the ramification. This is a contorted hazelnut aka "Harry Lauder's Walking Stick". Note that no branch has ever been wired on this tree - I have been developing it solely via structural pruning.


View attachment 524605

Do you have a pic of the tree in foliage?

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Do you have a pic of the tree in foliage?

I don't have anything recent other than general photos of my garden area. Here is a zoomed in photo from last summer. Ignore the walnut seedling growing in the soil... which looks suspiciously like poison ivy in this photo, LOL!

 

[gooeytek]

I don't have anything recent other than general photos of my garden area. Here is a zoomed in photo from last last. Ignore the walnut seedling growing in the soil... which looks suspiciously like poison ivy in this photo, LOL!

View attachment 524697

that's lookin' lush! too bad the branch structure is hidden though, I really like how it looks bare.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

that's lookin' lush! too bad the branch structure is hidden though, I really like how it looks bare.

That pic is from the "back" of the tree before any early summer pruning, so it is looking extremely shaggy. It was taken on April 23 - and you can see the trident maple next to it was just recovering from a very bad late frost we had in March last year.

I can always tell general timing because the squirrels come and plant walnuts in many of my trees and I dig them out by the summer