WEI
Sapling
The more I engage in bonsai, the more I appreciate working with different trees and styles. this little literati/bunjin Scots pine is my first foray into pines and one of two trees that I brought home from my first convention experience at Bonsai Central (amazing event and kudos to the organizers). the other tree was a larger cork bark JBP I worked on with Mauro in a workshop, which I'll cover in a separate thread.
I've styled nursery stock juniper as literati, but none felt particularly satisfying or interesting to look at. with each of those, I simply tried to mimic a picture of 'lightning-struck / [insert adjective] thin scraggly tree' with the material I had. that was the wrong approach, as was expecting that style to pair well with nursery stock. so when I was browsing the sales area and saw this (only 12-year-old?) pine and its potential, I decided I needed to approach styling differently. I had a few profound sources of inspiration:
my late grandfather was an acclaimed calligrapher whose work won national awards, and I'm fortunate to still have some of his writing both in scrolls as well as in books he published that were passed down to me. his calligraphy's placement and alternation between thin and heavy strokes provoke a fleeting, disjointed-yet-connected tension. the characters reminded me of another book in my possession whose language was assembled entirely from ink-covered insects, worms, and bugs moving on paper. I sought to capture some of that tension. those two sources, alongside michael hagedorn's blog post on 'savor' in bunjin, guided my vision.
unfortunately, I think I morphed the tree into a relatively 'standard' form, literati-wise. while it's now the tentative favorite of my collection, the work didn't quite match up to the inspiration. perhaps the upper half could bend a lot more radically; I don't 'puzzle' that much when I look at the tree. it doesn't invite me to explore for very long. here's the before and after:
a closeup of the foliage...
and the trunk base. it's got a nice flair, and the bark lends character.
all that said, I'm satisfied with my first genuine attempt at literati. this tree will be repotted next spring into a nanban after it regains vigor. once it's ready for a show, I'll incorporate some of 'nature's calligraphy' into the formal display - would be an interesting story to tell.
I've styled nursery stock juniper as literati, but none felt particularly satisfying or interesting to look at. with each of those, I simply tried to mimic a picture of 'lightning-struck / [insert adjective] thin scraggly tree' with the material I had. that was the wrong approach, as was expecting that style to pair well with nursery stock. so when I was browsing the sales area and saw this (only 12-year-old?) pine and its potential, I decided I needed to approach styling differently. I had a few profound sources of inspiration:
my late grandfather was an acclaimed calligrapher whose work won national awards, and I'm fortunate to still have some of his writing both in scrolls as well as in books he published that were passed down to me. his calligraphy's placement and alternation between thin and heavy strokes provoke a fleeting, disjointed-yet-connected tension. the characters reminded me of another book in my possession whose language was assembled entirely from ink-covered insects, worms, and bugs moving on paper. I sought to capture some of that tension. those two sources, alongside michael hagedorn's blog post on 'savor' in bunjin, guided my vision.
unfortunately, I think I morphed the tree into a relatively 'standard' form, literati-wise. while it's now the tentative favorite of my collection, the work didn't quite match up to the inspiration. perhaps the upper half could bend a lot more radically; I don't 'puzzle' that much when I look at the tree. it doesn't invite me to explore for very long. here's the before and after:
a closeup of the foliage...
and the trunk base. it's got a nice flair, and the bark lends character.
all that said, I'm satisfied with my first genuine attempt at literati. this tree will be repotted next spring into a nanban after it regains vigor. once it's ready for a show, I'll incorporate some of 'nature's calligraphy' into the formal display - would be an interesting story to tell.
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