Description
Take a piece of Pacific Bonsai Museum home with you with this gorgeous magnet featuring our Coastal Douglas Fir LAB tree by artist Ryan Neil.
Magnet measures 2.5 x 3.5 inches
The Story:
The Coastal Douglas Fir is one of the tallest tree species in the world, reaching heights of over 330 feet in the wild, just behind the Coastal Redwood. Native to the Pacific Coast, it thrives in the moist, temperate climate of the region. These towering giants are prized for their straight, sturdy trunks and strong wood, making them highly valuable for timber. In bonsai form, the Coastal Douglas Fir is admired for its upright growth, dense foliage, and ability to adapt to various forms.
In our LAB Session 2 in 2019, Neil revealed the Pacific Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii) he planned to perch as a high, root-over-rock planting: possibly the first such planting with a Pacific Douglas Fir (there are currently none in any public bonsai collection in the world.) He completed the design in time for the final LAB Session 4 in 2020.
The tree is housed in a container created by ceramicist Ron Lang and a wooden stand created in response to that container by furniture maker/woodworker Austin Heitzman. Both designs were inspired by the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Griggs home that was the setting of the LAB Session 1 (2018), with its central fireplace hearth and copper-clad, cantilevering roof. Heitzman designed his stand to solve the problem of outdoor display: an uncommon place for stands in traditional bonsai but required for display at Pacific Bonsai Museum. His copper-covered stand has a remarkable expected lifespan of at least 50 years out in the elements. Lang’s pot is a boxy, earthy “site” of bonsai extruded as if by stoking into a geometric container reminiscent of a fireplace. The audience could immediately see Wright’s influence in the geometric forms of both pieces. Some wondered out loud how such a visually distinctive stand/container combo could ever “recede” in order to let the tree “shine” the way stands and containers typically do in traditional bonsai. Lang noted that this container plays a part in telling the narrative, but in a louder voice than it traditionally would: “It’s not this quiet ‘picture frame around the painting.’” Neil added: “Containers are one half of bonsai but are underserved, always taking a backseat to the tree,” adding, “Perhaps it’s time to change that. We’re seeing with the LAB project the opportunity for a major evolution and greater freedom.”
Bonsai by Ryan Neil; Ceramic Container by Ron Lang; Etched copper stand by Austin Heitzman
