Page 55 - BSAM 2017 Q4

Show in December 2016, they came up with the idea to celebrate the US National Shohin Bonsai Exhibition the year between the US National Bonsai Exhibition which is celebrated biannually.Te frst US National Shohin Bonsai Exhibition was held in the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis, North Carolina in 2017. Te North Carolina Research Campus is a beautiful building with great architecture that promotes a peaceful environment. Te Building is known for its artistic painted ceiling and marble walls and foors covering the main lobby. Te inaugural event, held in June, was picturesquely framed by a beautiful sunset. You can appreciate the sunset in the picture taken the night of the banquet at around 9:00 PM. For people like me, who live in the tropics where it’s roughly thirteen-hour days and eleven-hour nights year round, this is extremely late for a sunset.Te well-presented exhibition had over 50 shohin bonsai on display in the main lobby of the building. Most of them were 3-point displays and 7-point displays. A shohin bonsai display is a lot more difcult to display than only one big bonsai tree. Why? Because of the complexity of multi-point displays! Te pro-portions of sizes between the bonsai trees and their companion plants, the variety of pots and species of trees are all required to harmonize in order to accomplish a good display.Shohin is a size range that is described as a one-handed tree, 13–20 cm (5–8 in), is larger than a mame or palm-size tree, and is smaller than a two-handed tree or a four-handed tree.As part of the event, there were four workshops, eight demonstrations and two lectures with bonsai professionals. Afer all the demonstrations, the trees of those demonstrations were auctioned of. Tere were many vendors with plenty of good pots and material for shohin and mame size bonsai.The shohin experts in attendance were Suthin Sukosolvisit, William N Valavanis, Kathy Shaner, John Romano, Sean Smith, Michael Lebanik, Marc Arpag and Michael Ryan Bell. Te Critique of the exhibition in the event, was made with respect, by Mr. Valavanis, Ms. Shaner and Mr. Sukosolvisit. Te inter-esting critique was excellent and educational. Most of the comments during the Critique were about how to improve the displays presented in the exhibition.Mr. Michael Ryan Bell gave a lecture about how the shohin pot evolved to its current state. People were really surprised with the small antique pots that Mr. Ryan brought for his lecture. Some of the most valuable pots on display and used in Ryan’s lecture were from pot collector and vendor Mathew Ouwinga.Top; Sargent Crabapple, Malus Sargentii - Mark ArpagMiddle; Japanese maple, Acer palmatum - Mark Arpag Bottom; Trident Maple, Acer buergerianum - Louise Leister