Future of Bonsai: Jennifer Price

Bonsai and penjing masters like Saburo Kato and John Naka are recognized as icons who really advanced and expanded the ancient art of bonsai. Now, the next generation of artists is building on those legacies, putting down roots for many more decades of bonsai artistry.

In The Future of Bonsai blog series, the National Bonsai Foundation is highlighting up-and-coming bonsai and penjing pioneers who are next in line to spread the spirit of bonsai. Chicago native and bonsai professional Jennifer Price is one such artist. Get to know her through this recent interview with Sophia Osorio, the First Curator’s Apprentice at the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum.

Sophia Osorio: Can you give us a brief introduction of yourself and your relation to bonsai?

Jennifer Price: Well, I was really good at growing plants. A local nursery had some bonsai and I went over there. I learned that there was a club for this and that the meeting was that night and they needed a special events coordinator. So I became that. The following week, I found myself at Brussel's Bonsai Rendezvous, which is one of the biggest bonsai events of the year in the country. I was really thrown into it. I was very intimidated actually, trying to take all of these workshops. I couldn’t tell the front of the tree from the back of the tree, didn’t know how to wire or do anything. I was completely lost. I ended up teaching there in 2019, and I'm still involved in the local club quite a bit. I have a lot of friends there, and I try to give back some of the knowledge that I learned throughout my journey. It's been fun.

SO: When did you first become interested in bonsai?

JP: I was actually a professional ballet dancer, and as a ballerina I had always looked at movement. So the line of the trees fascinated me right from the get go. For example, when you see a Literati tree, it looks very tall and sinuous. I think I was attracted to that – I saw the movement within the trees, within the trunk line, and kind of just took it from there.  As silly as that sounds, I think all trees kind of dance.

SO: What encouraged you to pursue bonsai as a profession rather than a hobby?

JP: I never thought I would do bonsai as a profession. There are so few women in this art and I sort of just stumbled into bonsai, taking every workshop that one could get. I got very lucky in that first meeting when I went down to Brussel's Rendezvous because I met Jim Doyle who has a long-established bonsai nursery in Pennsylvania. I ended up taking his class, and we really hit it off. Jim was a professional tap dancer when he was young, so we had that dance connection, and he was very patient as a teacher. Plus, he was only a couple of hours away. Through Jim, I met Walter Paul who became a huge teacher and mentor to me in my life, and then I started going to Europe to teach more. Really, Jim gets all the credit. Bonsai wasn't anything that I started out thinking, "Wow, I really want to turn this into a career." It just slowly evolved that way. 

I'm still Walter's apprentice to this day. As long as Walter will have me, I will continue working with him. I’ve now made the decision to study with Ryan Neil of Bonsai Mirai, which was a big decision for me because Walter was much more naturalistic in his styling. I wanted to get a little bit more formal training, technical training, and of course Ryan's artistry is beautiful. Unfortunately, with COVID-19, I wasn't able to do much. But with bonsai, you always consider yourself a student. There's so much to learn. I don't think you can ever stop. For myself, I want to keep working with Jim, Walter, add that technical aspect with Ryan and keep going.

SO: What are your future plans with bonsai?

JP: I'd like to continue to travel quite a bit, I enjoy that. I really enjoyed my time in Europe. This year, I'm supposed to go back to Germany and Sweden for a bonsai retreat. I enjoy traveling, teaching workshops and meeting new people. It's really interesting to see how different countries approach bonsai and styling. And for my own self, I want that new component of studying with Ryan and kind of learning his techniques and his methods. It's a strange position to be in because there are not many women in bonsai, so it's almost like a niche thing. In some ways, I don't want to be the "token woman" in bonsai, so I feel like everything is wide open for the taking if that makes sense. 

SO: Absolutely. That being said, why should someone get into bonsai, either as a hobby or a profession?

JP: For most people, it's a wonderful stress reliever and a connection with nature, which all of us need in our stressful lives. As far as anyone becoming a professional, that is a difficult road. I've spent a lot of time talking to friends of mine who are professionals, and traveling does get really tiring. Flying across the country to teach workshops, to give demos, I don't think that's very easy. I'm very lucky in the fact that I am married. I have a husband here who has a good job and what not, so I don't have that pressure to make ends meet. I think Ryan Neil and Bjorn Bjorholm of Eisei-En are exceptions. At a very young age, they had the ability to go and study in Japan and take that knowledge and come back and, frankly, are able to monetize it. 

SO: I can definitely see that. What advice would you give to someone who wanted to take up bonsai as a hobby or a profession?

JP: If you’re pursuing bonsai as a hobby, you need to take as many workshops as you can. Join a local club. That has helped me tremendously over the years. I first started out just to have more people to ask about overwintering, care and get some help in different seasons of bonsai. In terms of becoming a professional, I think you need to seriously study with one person. Let's say you were going to study with Bjorn – you'd have to really dedicate yourself to three to five years of serious study, then go out and say, "Okay, I'm now going to pursue this on my own." 

While she is not on social media, keep an eye out for Jennifer Price’s bonsai blog, coming soon!
The National Bonsai Foundation funds and curates several programs to educate and train the next generation of bonsai, like the First Curator’s Apprentice position. To support our work, consider gifting today.

The Future of Bonsai: Todd Schlafer

Bonsai and penjing masters like Saburo Kato and John Naka are recognized as icons who really advanced and expanded the ancient art of bonsai. Now, the next generation of artists are building on those legacies, putting down roots for many more decades of bonsai artistry.

In our new series The Future of Bonsai, the National Bonsai Foundation is highlighting up-and-coming bonsai and penjing pioneers who are next in line to spread the spirit of bonsai. Colorado native Todd Schlafer, who runs the school “First Branch Bonsai,” is one such artist. Get to know him through this recent interview with Sophia Osorio, the First Curator’s Apprentice at the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum. 

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Sophia Osorio: How were you first introduced to bonsai? 

Todd Schlafer: I was at a market in Spain that had a "grow a bonsai from seeds” kit. I brought it home and tried to grow the bonsai, and it sprouted but died. Then I just started looking for bonsai – I Googled “Colorado bonsai.” I was working as an art director for a pet toy company called Kong, and there was a wholesale nursery called "Colorado Bonsai" near where I worked. I started volunteering on Saturdays, Sundays and after work, and the owner Harold Sasaki introduced me to a man named Jerry Morris, who took me to Utah for the first time to collect trees.

Then I met Ryan Neil while he was traveling around, and he invited me to go out to Oregon and stay there with him. In my head, to get to where I wanted to be, I probably needed to do this full time. And at the time, I was getting up at like six in the morning, working on trees until I had to go into work, and then I would come home and work on trees until I had to go to bed. On the weekends, I would go to the mountains and all of that, so I was already pretty involved.

But I wasn't happy with my job at the store. I had been there for a long time and one day, I was saying to my dad, "something needs to change.” Because at work, I wasn't very patient, and I'm a very patient person. He asked, "If money wasn't an issue, and you could do anything you wanted, what would you do?" I said, "I would do bonsai and collect trees," and he said, "Then that's what you should do.” He said that to me twice, and after the second time, I decided to pursue bonsai as a career. 

Left: one of Schlafer’s ponderosa pines Right: one of Schlafer’s Colorado blue spruces

SO: Where or how did you study bonsai techniques and aesthetics?

TS: I read books. But when I went to Oregon and started studying with Ryan Neil, everything changed. I started realizing what the potential was for our native species. He had trees the size I had never seen in person and the amount of refinement on Rocky Mountain junipers and spruces and our native species, sierras, that I had never seen before. I saw the potential that our species here have. I always tell people that studying with Ryan really changed everything.

SO: What are your future plans with bonsai? 

TS: I just started teaching. I quit my job in 2017 and started traveling doing bonsai that year. When Ryan came back, he traveled, and when Peter Warren finished his apprenticeship, he started traveling, so I was like, "Well, I guess that's what I do!" From 2017 through the beginning of 2020, I traveled between 250 and 280 days a year. I was just trying to see repetition with trees and just get my hands on a lot of trees. You kind of have to prove yourself, I guess.

Last year, I had some classes scheduled but they were canceled because of COVID-19. This year I’m holding classes and still traveling, but not quite as much. I have about 12 different three-day intensive courses at my place in Denver. I just gutted and finished my workshop, and I think eventually I'll need more land. That's something I need to look at – I want more land, I want a bigger greenhouse, a bigger workshop. But it'll come with time. First things first. 

SO: Who would you say has influenced your work in the bonsai community?

TS: Probably the most is Ryan Neil. I still continue my education with him. But now, for about the last year, I’ve started to find my own voice or my own style and approach - trying to figure out who I am and what my stance is going to be, how I’m going to present things and how I explore different forms. But studying with Ryan, and how particular he is, his technique is just so good. It's helped me out a lot and has given me the ability to explore what my vision is, what my thoughts are and having the techniques to be able to pull off whatever that looks like."

SO: Why should someone pursue bonsai? 

TS: All the care and maintenance of this living piece of sculpture can be very therapeutic. There are times where I've struggled with anxiety or depression, so I'll just go and I'll take a toothbrush and clean deadwood on a juniper because there's something therapeutic about it. As an art form, if you're creative, bonsai is a good way of getting some of that creativity out. I love my job and I wouldn't want to change it. But it's also not always as glamorous as everyone thinks. For four years, I was never home. It can be a grind, but it's what I felt like I needed to do at the time.

Also, working on collected trees, whether it's the initial structure or the repotting, is very rewarding once it's finished, but while you're doing it, it's very stressful. Everyone thinks, "Oh you're just going to trim your bonsai and have a glass of wine,” but that's not really it at all. If you kill a tree, then it hurts a little. But there are all sorts of things that come out of it that are very rewarding.

Schlafer working on a pine

SO: What advice would you give to someone who is interested in pursuing bonsai either as a hobby or a profession?

TS: Even when I was still pursuing bonsai as just a hobby, I found someone that I kind of tuned into, like how they design trees or what their approach was, and I stuck with that one person. There are some schools of thoughts that encourage taking your bonsai to as many people as you can. I think that's fine, but also everyone is going to see things differently. Your tree is just going to get beat up basically because everyone is going to have a different view on it. 

Be careful because it's a slippery slope: you get one tree, then you get two trees, and then it turns into five trees and 10 trees. Then you buy a house and you need sunlight for your trees and then you quit your job to do it for a living. That was my thing. If it's just going to be a hobby, then keep a certain number of trees just for your collection that you can maintain because they are a lot more work in the different seasons than a lot of us have time for.

Schlafer can be found online at firstbranchbonsai.com, on Instagram as @todd_schlafer_bonsai and on Facebook as @ToddSchlafer and @FirstBranchBonsai. 

The National Bonsai Foundation funds and curates several programs to educate and train the next generation of bonsai, like the First Curator’s Apprentice position. To support our work, consider gifting today.

The National Bonsai Foundation funds and curates several programs to educate and train the next generation of bonsai, like the First Curator’s Apprentice position. To support our work, consider gifting today.