Many Americans create fairy houses indoors and outdoors. In a way, bonsais are a form of this fascination with miniatures. True bonsais are created from such a heavy amount of pruning, twisting, and tending, that bonsai artisans have known to forego vacation time in fear of missing a phase in bonsai cultivation. The idea is to create an illusion of a tree in all its majestic stature in the wild or as in a Chinese watercolor brush painting, while in truth it has lived under the meticulous care of an intensely domesticated potted life. The art itself celebrates the ironies in life.
