"ARCHWAYS TO FANTASY!"

               Walt Disney was one of my heroes and role models  .  .  .  a pragmatic visionary whose great dreams created an entire fantasy and entertainment empire that keeps expanding to theme parks throughout the world. He began with a little mouse!  My bonsai journey has taken me in many different directions. This is the story of my first exploration into "bonsai as art."

                One day as I sat dreaming staring at branch with a falling bonsai aerial root, the branch seemed to beckon me.  As my eye travelled to the next falling aerial root, it pulled me down to the ground and into a fantasy world where all kinds of wonderful things were happening.  Once in my fantasy world, I could go back up the root, continue on the branch, and go down to another different fantastic place!  A long spindly branch grew out of that special section and with a clustering of foliage at the end weighing it downwards, it seemed as if it too wanted to plunge into the earth! 

                What was happening down there?  Why were roots and branches trying to go there?

                Those were carefree days and over time I came back to that branch and the falling aerial roots again and again. In time I came to see that each root was part of a series of archways that would take me to my private fantasyland!

            "ARCHWAY TO FANTASY" began about 1984 during the creative days just prior to Fuku-Bonsai evolving into a corporation. It began as a single branch section with aerial rooots that was part of a larger ground-planted tree growing and being trained next to our parking lot. Over time additional branches and more aerial roots developed and these were trained as if there were a magical "magnet" that attracted thenm into the ground. Other sections of that same tree became "HUI HANALIKE;"  the entrance tree to the Fuku-Bonsai Cultural Center. 

            The outer edges of the arrangement were bowed to give the composition a tighter compositional cohesion. Some space remains for the next branch to grow out and to drop more aerial roots. The arrangement is 26" tall.  The container is unglazed brown oval ceramic measuring 28" long x 16" wide x 2 1/4" deep. The upward section of the branch at middle left will be pruned off so an outward and downward foliage section will develop that is consistent with the branch pattern of the other branches.

	"ARCHWAY TO FANTASY!"  began as a 6" long section of a branch with falling aerial roots that was severed from a larger tree. A long thin branch that came off the end was bent down to be a different kind of arch that ended with the lowest clump of foliage on the left.         Several other branches developed and trained by pruning. A lower branch was guided out, then down, out again, down again, out, down, out and on and this created the section on the right.         Aerial roots are produced when a tree is given high humidity and in the midst of a warm summer,  a plastic tent was rigged in the full sun around this fantasy tree and in that bright, hot, super moist environment, the aerial roots came flying out and were guided downwards.         They seemed to be heading for a secret world!
	From the side,  the arrangement is narrow.   The original 6" branch section is just below the tallest downward curving arch which is really a long branch that has since sent down an aerial root on the left.   The original two aerial roots have thickened as newer aerial roots joined them. To gain a higher position to allow the lower branch to dramatically drop, the original portion of the arrangement was planted on a rock that also added some visual stability to an otherwise fragile composition.          This is an effort to create contrasts. Curved outer branch and roots contrast with the straight interior aerial roots. Long narrow roots contrast with attractive green foliage, a wide front view contrasts with a narrow side view.
	From the other side, the aesthetic design dynamics can be more easily seen.  Art is in the eyes of the beholder and each effort must rise or fall on its own merits. From the very beginning, this was destined to be a unique bonsai like no other.

                The Fuku-Bonsai Cultural Center & Hawaii State Bonsai Repository feature several other trees that fall under "bonsai as art."  Each is an unique creation based upon