I really felt it today at Dombrovski's. He wanted to take some pictures, but needed to run out and get some film so I asked what I could do while he was gone...he asked me to moss this bonsai:
This bonsai is a pair of Acers growing over a smattering of dramatic rocks with some ferns. Ski said he did not moss at the most recent re-potting and, after looking over last week's crab apples he really liked the attention to detail I paid on the moss. (They don't call me Mr. Moss for nothin')
So I offered to collect up some moss from the ground, (the stuff grows like crazy on the ground at his place), but he suggested I take nice bits from all the other trees so as not to risk contaminating the tree with either carpet grass or likewise. So I gathered up a handful from various trees. Now you have to understand I'm just a little bonsai grasshopper. How dare I rip up moss from the timeless green velvet laying under masterpieces I would otherwise dare not touch without an extremely good reason...and here is Ski telling me "just chunk some moss out of there and put it in this one."
Easy for you to say, pal...
So with a deep breath I pluck and pinch and scrape carefully from various trees until I have a good handful. I put the first couple pieces on and instinct quickly took over. For the next hour or so, I placed dozens of tiny dime-sized clumps of moss on the surface; distributed evenly but without any discernable order. Keep in mind there's a process, you can't just slap it on there. Do it right, and your eye is never attracted to focus a single clump. In this way, a bit of "perceptual closure" occurs such that the moss appears to be growing naturally, but not exactly covering the whole surface like a carpet. That's just not how moss grows in the forest, and if it were done that way you'd say "a person did that" which is what, in many cases, modern American bonsai tries to avoid at all costs.
Anyway, over the next several weeks, the little clumps will grow vigorously and spread across the surface of the bonsai soil and grow together, forming a natural looking network of moss clumps you'd swear took years to grow there.
So today I mossed a masterpiece...in some small way I am now part of that bonsai and it is part of me. Sure Dombrovski could have done it in his sleep, but he didn't....I did. And I don't have words for the pride I feel... not for having done it, but for having been trusted to do it by a guy who really doesn't like anyone getting near his trees, let alone touching them, let alone digging in them.
It hasn't taken Dombrovski long to let me know he appreciates what I've brought to the table. That, in having selected him I honor him; and having agreed, he honors me even more.
He gave me "the book" today; the notebook containing his daily notes for the past 10 years. It's all there: soil compositions, pot selection, fertilization routine, sketches, bench plans. Odd little scribbles with no relation to bonsai, stains, water damage. The damned thing used to be a spiral notebook, now it's held together with duct tape. 10 years of living bonsai, every day, all day with so many trees there is always something to do and you can never really "catch up".
What a freakin' life! No wonder he doesn't have a phone, that would just complicate things unnecessarily.
No comments:
Post a Comment