Author: Brownlee Currey

Hello Everyone!

We want to wish everyone a heartfelt THANK YOU! 

Thank you so much for a wonderful exhibition last weekend. 

Thank you for showing such a wide variety and range of fascinating bonsai material.

Thank you for being so engaged with each other and the public.

Thank you to all of our volunteers for so much of your time, energy and enthusiasm.

We had a wonderful show, beautiful weather, a record number of visitors, fantastic participation by our members and most importantly, it was a lot of fun!  Events like this are what the club is all about.

We have another opportunity to show bonsai to the public this week at the Japan Arts Festival from 11:00am to 5:00pm this Saturday at the Dunwoody Georgia State University campus.  Organized in conjunction with JapanFest and Georgia State this one-day event will feature displays of traditional Japanese cultural activities, demonstrations, music, and food!  Please check out this link for more details:   https://www.japanfest.org/events

The club will participate with a display of bonsai, which we will set up at 10:00am on Saturday.  Please reach out to any of our board members if you are interested.  This is a free, one day event and promises to be a lot of fun.  Please come join your fellow club members in displaying a tree, or just talking to the public about bonsai.

Last, but not least, we will look forward to seeing everyone in April for our second Beginner’s Seminar on April the 13^th and for Young Choe’s visit on April the 23^rd.

go to this link to cast your votes in judging our annual show: https://forms.gle/QPPDydgB2TAtgADM8

The club will host our 60^th anniversary bonsai exhibition at the Atlanta Botanic Gardens on the 19^th and 20^th of March, with set up on the afternoon of the 18^th.  Since the ’21 exhibition was just in October we should all be in the exhibition groove.

Two big changes for this show are updates to the awards categories and the implementation of member judging.  We’ve updated the awards to better encompass a variety of experience levels and different interests across the bonsai world.  We’ve implemented member-based judging to create greater engagement with the exhibition while helping everyone to develop a framework for what makes a great bonsai.

We want everyone; the novice, the intermediate practitioner, and the experienced hand, to attend, show your trees, spend some time with our community and learn from our guest artist.

This year’s guest artist is Tyler Sherrod, of Dogwood Studios, from Hickory North Carolina.  Tyler was introduced to Bonsai when he worked at the Bonsai Learning Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.  Working at the Bonsai Learning Center he attended several workshops with Boon Manakitivipart of Bonsai Boon in the Bay area.  Boon assisted Tyler in gaining an apprenticeship with Shinji Suzuki in Obuse, Japan.  Tyler left North Carolina and began his apprenticeship with Mr. Suzuki in 2011.  Tyler’s apprenticeship lasted for five years.  In the Spring of 2016, Tyler received his professional certification from the Nippon Bonsai Association.  Working under Mr. Suzuki, he was responsible for refining trees and preparing them to be entered in Japan’s top bonsai competitions which included Kokufu-ten, Taikan-ten, and Sakafu-Ten, where several of the trees won top prizes.

Tyler will serve as advisor for setting the exhibition, lead a discussion of how to judge the show, perform a critique of the show, do a demonstration on Saturday afternoon and lead a workshop on Sunday.

This year’s show will be divided into three categories:  Novices, Intermediate Practitioners and Experienced Exhibitors.  Novices are encouraged to bring a tree in a bonsai pot and we will help you get prepared for the show on the afternoon of the 18^th, Intermediate and Experienced exhibitors are requested to bring a traditional bonsai display, consisting of bonsai, stand, and an accent.  Only those who enter the exhibition as novices or intermediates are eligible for those awards, while all entrants are eligible for the “best of” categories.

Prizes will be awarded for:

•  Best In Show (the strongest overall tree in the exhibition)
• People’s Choice (taken by popular vote, including casual visitors to the show)
• Best Shohin Bonsai Display (the strongest, most detailed, properly presented, formal shohin display)
• Best Conifer Bonsai (the best developed and most aged in appearance conifer, including broadleaf evergreens)
• Best Deciduous Bonsai (the best developed and most aged in appearance deciduous tree)
• Novice 1^st Place (the best developed novice tree with the most potential)
• Novice Honorable Mention
• Intermediate First Place (the best developed intermediate tree with the most potential)
• Intermediate Honorable Mention
• Best Suiseki Display (the most evocative and thoughtful suiseki display)

As always, we are seeking volunteers for set up, staffing the club table during the show, and breaking the show down.  Please reach out to a board member if you wish to volunteer, as we need your help!

Show Schedule:

Friday March 18th:

1:00pm: Set up volunteers to arrive to arrange tables, backdrops and lights

4:30pm – 7:00pm:  Trees and Stands to be dropped off by exhibiting members

7:00pm:  Exhibition Room closes for the day

7:00 – 8:00pm:  Final arrangement of the show by the guest artist

Saturday March the 19th:

9:00am:  Gardens Open

10:00am – 12:00pm:  Discussion on Judging Criteria lead by Tyler Sherrod

2:00 – 4:00pm:  Demonstration by Tyler Sherrod

7:00pm Show closes

8:00pm Informal Banquet at Dim Sum Heaven on Buford Highway

Sunday March the 20th

9:00am:  Gardens Opens

10:00 – 12:00pm “Coffee and Bonsai” Informative Critique and tour of the exhibition led Tyler Sherrod

1:30– 4:30 Bonsai Workshop with guest artist – Get Tickets Today

5:00pm: People’s Choice Award and Raffle of the Demostration Tree

6:00pm Breakdown and Clean Up

To Register your entries for the show, please go to the link and answer a few simple questions: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeKy7kxgib3V3g-w9w5go5XYu_wdf6sipoBh45ovQEA7cPKtg/viewform?usp=sf_link