By Alana DiPlacido
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Michael Levin, owner of Bonsai West and passionate bonsai artist, arrived at the Dover Town Library (DTL) with over ten bonsai trees in tow.
Levin began a presentation that would lead the audience through his personal history with the art of bonsai as well as helpful tips and tricks for growing and caring for your own tree. He ended the presentation with a live demonstration on how to prune and wire a bonsai.
Levin did not grow up around a bonsai culture, in fact, he didn’t come by the art of bonsai until his adulthood. Not only did he not know about bonsai trees until later in life, he didn’t initially think of growing them as an art form.
When talking about his first encounter with bonsai, he shared with the crowd: “I was driving through New Hampshire when I saw these tiny trees on the side of the road and I thought to myself– I could sell those!”
Despite his initial interest in bonsai being monetary, as Levin learned more about the art form and befriended other bonsai artists, his feelings towards those ‘tiny trees’ developed into something much deeper than business.
The more that Levin learned about bonsai, the more he came to view it as a meditative practice. “I’m doing it quickly here to show you all,” Levin said as he performed his live pruning demonstration, “but I could spend a whole afternoon just pruning, cleaning, and rewiring this one little tree.” Levin credits the Japanese-American community in California for teaching him more about the culture surrounding bonsai.
When Levin began traveling to the west coast in order to learn from and work with Bonsai artists there, he said he came to see how the art of bonsai could be a community building activity. “The people I met in California treated growing bonsai trees the way a lot of people treat book clubs: as a way to stay connected to their community.”
