My San Josesai

[A Random User]

Purging...Thanks!

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Reminds me of another tree posted here not too long ago...

 

[Poink88]

I like it and it does have an uncanny resemblance to the one BVF posted. Both are nicely different as well.

The deadwood is nice but I feel there is a missed opportunity to show it better. I honestly don't know how but I just feel that way.

 

[Vance Wood]

View attachment 44394View attachment 44395View attachment 44396
Here is my San Josesai Juniper...

It needs to be re-potted in a new pot, just
been letting it reside in this awful blue over sized
Pot, but seeing that it has undergone quite a bit
of work this yr, I think I might even let it continue
to let it reside in it for next yr as well.

It has been wired, had branches removed, and thinned
out, and had the splitting shari created down the side.

This tree has a bright future. If the tree were mine I would thin the foliage a bit to expose more secondary branching. I'm not sure the message sent by the trunk is echoed by the branching at this point.

 

[Vance Wood]

Clarify please... seeing that usually when you and
Those who have thanked you have ever commented
On any of my trees, it has been to throw insults...

So, as to not "misunderstand" your intentions with what
You have posted, I think some further explanation is due
On your part...

Am I to assume that you are saying I somehow copied
Vance's tree ???

I don't know what to say without fear of making you think there is an alterior motive behind what I say. The fact is that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. I understand how you feel though---been there had it happen.

 

[Vance Wood]

I don't think you have any ulterior motive...
I am just straight out asking, because it seems as though
I am being accused of trying to copy your tree... Which
upsets me, because... what seems to be being proposed
is that the only way I may be able to create a good tree,
is by just copying yours...

I will agree that our trees look similar, but I can guarantee
you this is not the case. In fact the only time I have ever
seen your tree was just the other day when we were having
our train wreck, and you posted it.

This tree was actually re-styled this spring, you actually
might remember this tree... I posted it here at B-Nut before
I was kicked off, I also posted on it at IBC some
time ago... And you commented on it, and had a few choice
words for it as well...
Perhaps these pics might ring a bell...
View attachment 44413

If I am over-reacting and there was no ill will by the suggestion
of our trees looking similar, than I apologize to all concerned.

Yes I remember the tree. I did not realize that this was the same tree. You have made a spectacular re-design of it. There are a couple of points that I think you are probably aware of. First the trunk has a kind of reverse taper, or at least a reverse mass in appearance. I think this can be resolved by reducing the area above the bend in the trunk by creating some dead wood. I realize that this decision is going to take some time to happen because the tree has already been so drastically reduced. The other is the top needing to be thined and balanced.

 

[Dav4]

Clarify please... seeing that usually when you and
Those who have thanked you have ever commented
On any of my trees, it has been to throw insults...

Stacey, are you sure? I'm pretty sure I have never made a comment on a tree in a thread of yours, for good or for bad... can you say the same for me? Absolutely not. I don't come here to make trouble...seriously, you should try it.

edit: I did comment on the tree in this thread...insults.... http://bonsainut.com/forums/showthread.php?12248-A-Real-Solution-to-a-Problem

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Clarify please... seeing that usually when you and
Those who have thanked you have ever commented
On any of my trees, it has been to throw insults...

So, as to not "misunderstand" your intentions with what
You have posted, I think some further explanation is due
On your part...

Am I to assume that you are saying I somehow copied
Vance's tree ???

To clarify: one reminds me of the other.

I don't follow you or Vance closely enough to imply any "copying", so it would be incorrect to assume that. However, given the recent exchanges between you two, it was quite serendipitous, and made me chuckle.

 

[edprocoat]

I was wondering when the idea of someone accusing another, or the other person feeling they were accused of copying a tree would come up. It seems like it would happen much more often on an open forum like this where people show pics of their trees as maybe 80 - 90% of most Bonsai looks so similar. Especially the pines with the standard being branches pulled down etc.

Add to that the fact that almost every time you find someone trying something a bit different the tendency is for the crowd to gang up and say it does not work or is not a good style, plus the fact there are relatively few accepted styles to shape your tree in. I have commented in several threads here over the time I have been here how in nature there is no accepted style, only to be sternly told that we try to improve on nature, not mimic it. The odd thing is that the more abstract styles really appeal to me for just that reason, they are unique not so much a cookie cutter replicant.

ed

 

[Vance Wood]

I was wondering when the idea of someone accusing another, or the other person feeling they were accused of copying a tree would come up. It seems like it would happen much more often on an open forum like this where people show pics of their trees as maybe 80 - 90% of most Bonsai looks so similar. Especially the pines with the standard being branches pulled down etc.

Add to that the fact that almost every time you find someone trying something a bit different the tendency is for the crowd to gang up and say it does not work or is not a good style, plus the fact there are relatively few accepted styles to shape your tree in. I have commented in several threads here over the time I have been here how in nature there is no accepted style, only to be sternly told that we try to improve on nature, not mimic it. The odd thing is that the more abstract styles really appeal to me for just that reason, they are unique not so much a cookie cutter replicant.

ed

Once I got to a point in my bonsai journey to become bored with text book examples of the various bonsai styles I became aware that the traditional styles were parodies of existing trees to begin with. They had become stylized and pidgeon holed into fairly precise patterns of physical factors to a point that the patterns had become more important than the trees and the forms they try to represent. Natural forms had suggested a stylized form that over time became refined to a point that the representation was more important than that which is was suposed to represent.

I think over the last ten years or so artists have been attempting to depart from the stylized prision and work more toward a natural style with the same grace and subtility possed by the better stylized forms, without the mechanical adherence to specific models where by a tree may be judged by some predetermined parameters.

 

[Paradox]

Wow another good thread...could this be a trend?

First: another nice tree. I also like the redesign very much over the original styling. Its different (at least to me) and not something Ive seen alot of before (if at all).

Second: I think the fact it is very similar to one of Vance's trees is purely coincidence. Its not outside the realm of impossibility for 2 people to have similarly shaped trees, similarly styled.

 

[Paradox]

and....I just realized I messed up what I wrote.


I meant so say: "It is very possible that two people could have similar trees"; not that it is "impossible"

This is what happens when I read the forums too late instead of going to bed....

 

[Lazylightningny]

I'm not sure the message sent by the trunk is echoed by the branching at this point.

vance could you explain what you mean by this?