Page 62 - Tạp chí bonsai cây cảnh BCI 2014Q4

I can’t resist giving a bit more of a preview to whet wonderfully simple and complementary display. His
the appetite. Figure 8, Grand Duchess, depicts a stone work was recently featured in BCI Bonsai and Stone
collected from the northern shore of Georgian Bay on Appreciation Magazine and is characterized by an
Lake Huron by Tony Ankowicz. He also created the understated harmony between stone and display. His
displays, in their simplicity and reverence for wood,
Figure 8; Grand Duchess magnify the impact of the stones they hold. His work
Northern shore of Georgian brought to mind the aesthetic that informed the work
Bay, Lake Huron, Ontario,
Canada of the famous designer of wooden furniture, George
Tony Ankowicz Collection Nakashima. In a manner reflective of the “adopt and
23 x 5 x 4 inches (58.4 x 12.7 x adapt” theme articulated earlier, the desert stone
10.2 cm) presented in Figure 9 captures the sculpting power
of windswept sand. The impression created by this
stone is enhanced by the understated elegance of Cliff
Johnson’s display. The power of Water Poem (Figure
10) is palpable. It was carved by the flow of the Cache
la Poudre River in Colorado. The elegantly simple ma-
hogany base enables the stone’s magnificence to shine.
In closing, I would like to return to the twofold in-
vitation to discover and to discover. Viewing Stones
of North America provides all that the reader needs
to discover in the first sense. It presents an art form
that shares a historical foundation with Asian for-
bearers but is transformative rather than derivative.
It provides expert background to allow the collector
proceed with informed confidence and a personal
sense of the earth and its history. The second sense of
discovery falls to the reader although stones do their
part. This message is universal—it applies to all en-
vironments and cultures where stones are collected
and create meaning in the lives of those who cherish
them. Larry Ragle writing in Awakening the Soul tells
us: “Rocks, it would seem have a voice. They speak to us.
They beg us to pick them up. On occasion they convince
us to take them home.” He goes on to quote Richard
Ota: a stone “should evoke memories of the day you
found it, the difficulty of the search, the heat, or the cold,
even the mood you possessed at the time.” This quota-
Figure 11; Tom has found a tion is very much in the spirit of the invitation to col-
stone that interests him. lect that is implicit in Viewing Stones of North America.
It sits happily with the view of collecting described
in conversation by Ray Furse and is charmingly evi-
dent in the face of the author, Tom Elias, in Figure 11.
Tom has found a stone that interests him. Alive in the
stone is much more than its aesthetic appeal. It holds
the company of Ken McLeod, the beauty of the day
and the location, the sound of the river, and the smell
of the surrounding forest. Discovery of stones allows
one to know everything about the origin of the stone.
Discovery also allows the opportunity for the aesthetic
and personal to fuse seamlessly in giving great mean-
ing to the stone. Let the hunt begin.

Notes:
1. The phrase “Awaken the soul” derives from the title, Awakening
the Soul, a work produced by the National Bonsai Foundation in
2000.
All figures and figure captions derive from Viewing Stones of North
America with the exception of the two personal pictures supplied
by Dr. Elias.

60 | BCI | October/November/December 2014