My bonsai collection of paintings has been inspired by a recent residency in Japan. While there I visited the Omiya Bonsai Village outside of Tokyo... this seemingly ordinary outer-suburb was the safe haven for bonsai during the war and they've been cared for there ever since. Some of the trees are thousands of years old.
Anyway, I have always been drawn to bonsai and Japanese Maples both. The elegance of the maple leaf... the five-pronged leaves are almost hand like. Bonsai are something a little out of this world, yet so familiar... they're for creatures much smaller than us to rest under and make homes within. They play with and tickle our sense of scale.