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Part 1
What we traditionally call the "rules" when it comes to the aesthetic part of bonsai
are a number of conventions that follow most growers from the first tree until they themselves become fertilizer. Before I
start to decompose I'd like to share my view of the aesthetic traditions and their purpose and function, and also share some
tips and tricks I've learned from my study of the visual arts.
Before we move on to the aesthetics I'd like to explain "where I come from" regarding
the subject at hand. In my opinion there are some misunderstanding when it comes to how the rules should be applied, mostly
because of how the so called ruled are formulated: one-liners with a punch, often presented as absolute truths. Fortunately
most of us know that absolute truths are hard to find (except when it comes to Ben & Jerry's ice cream, which practically
defines it!). Artistic principles is a lot like bonsai, it takes some time before you understand them and can use them as
you please. There are no shortcuts. The aspiring masters study the "rules" the same way painters do, their master don't give
them a piece of paper with 40 no-no's. In aesthetics, right and wrong are determined by the relation to the other objects
within the composition and therefore utterly relative. Hence, in my opinion, you can't really "bend" the rules and not really
break them either and still have a working composition. Something we can do is to create a(n) (un)successful composition,
but never one that one works a bit or slightly. If I know something is kind of good, as far as I'm concerned it's bad. That
doesn't mean that there is only one possible outcome though, a working composition can be obtained by arranging a given number
of objects in a vast number of ways. All in all, a design either works or not. A design that only works in part is an unsuccessful
design.
The purpose of this article is not to say that I know how to style a tree. Believe
me I don't and I have the photos to prove it. The purpose isn't to make you believe what I say is true, or that it's the only
way to style a tree. What I say is not groundbreaking in any way, this is very basic aesthetic principles taught at any decent
art school. So what is it about then? The purpose is to show and explain the how and why behind the "rules" so that the reader
hopefully will gain a larger amount of control in the design process. I would also like to mention that my perspective is
pretty down to earth. I won't discuss what makes a tree "masculine", "energetic", express "solitude" etc. simply because such
stereotypes and associations are individual and dependant on a cultural context. What's masculine to me might not be masculine
to you. Besides, it's easier to communicate if you at least make an effort to make the recipient of that information actually
understand what you mean. If you say "that bark is feminine", why not say "that bark is smooth" if that's what you mean?
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A composition isn't a quality in in itself, it's just a way to describe that a given
number of objects have a certain relation to each other. The composition as a concept
is neither good or bad, and it's there whether there is conscious thought behind it or not. What I mean is that raw stock,
be it yamadori or pre-bonsai, has/is a composition. It might not be a good one (probably not), but since the different elements
such as trunk, branches and foliage are related to each other the composition is already there. A composition always has beginning
and an end. Musically they are known as "intro" and "outro", in visual arts it's usually a frame, in a movie it's the television
screen etc. In bonsai we have the use of a tokonoma, which is a special kind of alcove for displaying bonsai, scrolls
or other objects. When it comes to solitary bonsai, be it a forest or informal upright, we need a slightly different approach.
Traditional paintings consist of objects whose relation to the end of the canvas is carefully calculated and since solitary
bonsai don't really have and end and beginning in that sense, their elements relate more to themselves so to speak. Then again,
if you decide to add more objects to your bonsai display, such as scrolls and/or
accents, its similarities to traditional arts might become more obvious. This article is meant to deal more with the aspects
to consider when we're talking about solitary bonsai displayed on a "monkey pole" for instance, but can also be applied on
compositions with more than a single object.
The purpose of a composition is to present new information in a preordained order.
In other words, the goal in visual arts is to lead the eye of the beholder in an order decided by the artist or person that
created it. If an objects attracts the eye too much (or too little) in the wrong order the composition slightly works at best
(and we all know how I feel about that). One of the fundamentals for a successful composition is that there is a general unity
between the different objects and elements, but also a unity between what you can see and what the tree tries to communicate.
I'm not talking about communication as in a certain "story" or "message", but rather an expression in general. Imaging a peculiar
posture or pose, it's an expression without a particular story. Another example is a line drawn with the help of a ruler,
it will look dead compared to a line drawn free handed with a brush and ink. The line itself doesn't tell a story but it makes
a statement. The reason a young seedling seldom works as a literati is because there is no unity between the visual
elements, such as young smooth bark, and what the tree tries to communicate. All the aspects needs to work together. However,
that doesn't mean that there can't be anything that is extra interesting like some deadwood or a twisting trunk. What it means
is that a twisting trunk should have twisting branches. Interesting doesn't have to mean inconsistent.
Lets imagine a clean white piece of paper. One could argue that the paper has a coherent
design, is has the same color all over and there no objects that attract attention. Now, lets put a blue dot on it (Figure
1) and we have a design that's not coherent anymore because now there's something asking for our attention.
The amount of attention the object seek is called visual weight. The visual weight doesn't necessarily consist of
a difference in shape or color, but can also consist of something that strikes us as peculiar or odd. The areas that have
the most visual weight are called focal points. Now lets try to make the design coherent again without removing the
blue dot. One way to do this is to add more of the same elements. What this does is it takes away the "specialness" of the
original blue dot and therefor doesn't attract the eye as much (Figure 2).
Now we could "reactivate" the "specialness" of the original blue dot by giving it
another color, say red, and then add other red dots again to counter this if the effect was unwanted. The lesser the number
of characteristics two objects have in common, the more we will perceive them as unrelated. If we were to remove one of the
circles and replace it with a square, we would still feel that it is unrelated to the circles even if they all had the same
color. Another way to counter an objects visual weight is to add a completely different object. Lets use the first example
again. To really make a point we add a huge red star (Figure 3).
Nothing can counter that, right? Actually, it's pretty simple. Just tone it down
until until it's hardly visible and the blue circle still dominates the image (Figure 4). To make them have the same visual
weight just bring the saturation back up a bit until it feels like they demand the same amount of attention.
Now how does that relate to bonsai? What the example above show is that if there's
something that stands out, it attracts the eye and as long as that element is the only one with a special quality (different
shape, color etc) it's going to be very hard to look at anything else. We countered that though by adding more of the same
elements or added other objects that demand the same amount of attention. Using these techniques you can incorporate ugly
scars into the design by adding some more or visually counter a top-heavy tree in a shallow pot by using a bright colored
one. A massive area of swirling deadwood can be countered by swirling branches cascading down the pot or accentuated by having
minimal amounts of foliage. It's NOT necessarily about always countering elements, a better bonsai might be obtained by accentuating
an element instead. The point is that you have to know these things to use them properly in either way!
To make a smooth transition to the next subject, let's round this off with another
example. This one shows a bonsai with foliage clouds that are inconsistent (Figure 5).
As you can see, the upper left foliage cloud in the front has the shape of a rectangle.
This results in difficulties in actually viewing the whole tree. One can make a conscious effort to do so, but it is likely
that you'll find yourself staring at the center foliage cloud since its visual weight has made it a focal point. There are
a number of ways to lead the eye within a composition but let us go back to the circles just to keep things simple.
These three circles shows how focal points can be used to lead the eye around the
composition (Figure 6). If the result is what we want, the eye should be lead in the shape of a triangle.
If the dark circles where in the shape of a square, the eyes should be lead in the
shape of a square etc. Like I said, there are several ways to do this but this is just to show how it works.
Another way is to make the shape of an object lead the eye to an object with seemingly
less visual weight as in the example below (Figure 7).
Even though the wedge shape is larger and should have more visual weight, the shape
leads the eye to the circle which then becomes the focal point. What this shows is that visual weight is relative; relative
to the other objects in the composition. It's simply impossible to say that a big red star is a focal point, or an interesting
shari, or a twisting trunk. Once again, the focal point(s) are determined by their relation to the other elements. You simply
can't say that "the hollow trunk is the focal point" when the other objects (such as foliage, branches etc.) visually suggest
something else.
In Part 2 we will continue with the basics. We'll look into lines, perspective and
negative space and see how they influence the design.
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