Bruce W. Baker

       I got started in bonsai in 1977 after visiting the collection at Longwood Gardens in Kennet Square, Pennsylvania.  Since that time I have very actively pursued bonsai through my personal collection as well as through participation in bonsai organizations.  In 1987 I was one of a number of people to be honored as "one of America's Outstanding Bonsai Artists" by the National Bonsai Foundation.  A tree I exhibited in the Outstanding American Bonsai invitational exhibition at the International Bonsai Congress '87 is pictured in Randy Clark's book, "Outstanding American Bonsai."  I have won many honors for my bonsai, including two Best of Show awards, at the annual Mid-America Bonsai Exhibition in Chicago.  

       I demonstrate and lecture for bonsai groups throughout the world.  I have been a featured demonstrator and teacher at a number of U.S. regional and national conventions.

       I contribute frequently to bonsai publications and was a featured columnist for the American Bonsai Society Journal for four years.  One of my articles was translated and published in Czechoslovakia prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union!  I have served as president of the Ann Arbor Bonsai Society and the Bonsai Association of Michigan.  I have also served as a director and officer of Bonsai Clubs International and a director of the National Bonsai Foundation.

       My own collection includes a large number of bonsai bonsai, most of which are collected trees and all of which I have personally styled.  Some of these trees are featured on this site.  I am probably best known for working with power carving tools.  Most people visiting my collection are particularly interested in my collected white cedar, yew, and pear bonsai.  However, I work with a wide variety of material and am always interested in experimenting with new subjects.  

       I consider myself to be a contemporary bonsai artist because I am willing to use every tool and technique at my disposal to get the most I can out of every tree.  I believe that the most common flaw with American bonsai is lack of detail and refinement.  Bonsai is a never ending process, and I am constantly improving, refining, and restyling my trees to try to bring out the best in them.  

       I especially enjoy working with larger material.  In a day-long demonstration at the American Bonsai Society convention in 1992, I created a hollow trunked, driftwood style bonsai from a yew stump that was nine inches in trunk diameter.  In demonstrations I am well-known for transforming ordinary or even hopeless looking stock into dramatic bonsai through properly applied wire and judicious use of power carving tools.  

        Everything I have accomplished in bonsai flows from the insight and enlightenment I have gleaned from the superior knowledge and experience of other bonsai artists and enthusiasts.  The one person among that group who shared the most with me and gave me the greatest inspiration at the most critical time in my development as a bonsai artist is Jack Wikle.  For that and his friendship I am forever in his debt.

       I am happy to speak on a wide variety of bonsai-related subjects, to lead workshops, and to do styling demonstrations.  Please contact me by email if you are interested in having me do a program for your group.