Artful Environments

Held July 27 through September 4, 2002

Note from the Curator

"Artful Environments" was a collaboration between the Bonsai Collection and ten Northwest artists, whose original works were displayed in conjunction with selected bonsai from Weyerhaeuser's permanent collection. A variety of media was utilized in the works presented, including painting, photo-emulsion imaging, stonework, copper and bronze work, woodwork, and ceramics. Northwest artists represented were:

B.J. Daniells
Barbara Kolar
Tom De Groot
Hunter McGee
David Gentry
Susan Stewart
Lynne Hull
David Wahlstrom
Caroline Kapp
Deloss Webber

The Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection is an outdoor museum of living art that was established in 1989 by Weyerhaeuser Company as part of the Washington State centennial celebration. The collection offers free public bonsai display, lectures, and special exhibits.

Bonsai are living trees that are sculpted to represent scenes in nature. Traditional Asian accompaniments for bonsai include calligraphy, ink and color paintings, plant arrangements, and scenic stones. The use of such accompaniments is intended to enhance the effect of a natural scene by suggesting a season or elements of a tree's native environment.

"Artful Environments" was the first exhibit in North America to couple bonsai with contemporary American art that interacted with not only the scenic aspects of bonsai, but with their purely abstract qualities of line, form, texture, and color.

David De Groot, Curator