We had the good fortune of connecting with Ryan Neil and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ryan, what do you think makes you most happy? Why?

The most important happiness in my life stems from the love I have for my son, my family, the team of creative and talented people I work with, and the students I have the pleasure and the opportunity to teach and work with on a very personal level. Other noteworthy happiness comes from exploring nature and looking at ancient trees in their native environments. As a result of documenting, observing, understanding, studying, interacting with, communicating with, and relating with this information, I am then able to convey it through my work, generating the kind of fascination and intrigue that trees in their natural environment generate for me. It gives me purpose, a reason to get up every day and do what I do, which again, going back to, is not always easy, and honestly quite tough to make a living doing. But my experiences in native environments, standing in front of a 3000-year-old tree, cause me to recognize my place. Recognizing how small, soft and delicate we all are in comparison to the grandness of the trees. What’s also apparent is how quickly we’re destroying it. It causes me to tap into the awareness of my daily actions, through the things I teach, express, and communicate. The natural environment doesn’t care what color you are, your gender or sexual orientation, age, your political stance, economic status, the size of your house, or the make and model of your car—none of that matters. We are all equal when standing in the middle of the Rocky Mountains, Sierra Nevadas, or the Andalusian mountains. When you’re out there, you are subjected to nature’s wrath and beauty. Nobody is an exception, and I really love that. As a society, I think we’ve lost this perspective because we have created this construct of built environments, hierarchies, and societies. All this societal stuff that we’re experiencing in the world today, it’s really unfortunate. But when I start to meet people out in the world and get to witness genuine beauty and authenticity, it brings me happiness and hope.



Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
When I first started my bonsai journey, I didn’t fully realize I was pursuing an artistic or creative endeavor, I was just trying to do bonsai. To me, bonsai is a relationship. I decided to do bonsai for a living when I was just 12 years old—after seeing an infomercial that had a bonsai tree in it, and then shortly after, I was exposed to bonsai again at a local county fair. From there, I started checking out every book from the library, knowing then that I would pursue it for the rest of my life. What first fascinated me the most was my curiosity that a miniature tree could be a big tree, but to keep it small, I would have to work with it to help it survive—that really fascinated me. I saw Masahiko Kimura’s work in a magazine a few months after my fascination first exploded. I remember thinking, this guy really communicates with the tree, he brings out the spirit and soul of the tree and gives it personality. It felt human to me when I first saw his work and I knew that I too, wanted to inspire others the same way his works impacted me. Shortly after, I was exposed to Harold Sasaki and his collected ponderosa pine. I quickly recognized that these same trees existed around me in my own native environment. That’s when my relationship with nature first sparked, but at that point it still wasn’t a creative endeavor for me. It didn’t become a creative endeavor until I experienced life as a foreigner in Japan, where I was told that I couldn’t do bonsai, because I didn’t understand it—but I knew that wasn’t true for me. I knew that there was something I could contribute to and pursue in my own way. When I would sit and wire trees for about 14 hours a day during my apprenticeship, I knew there were other ways to explore the art of bonsai. I started asking myself, what can bonsai be? What can bonsai show? These questions sparked me to recognize the American landscape as a vast, expansive, unique standalone piece. In the southeast, there are bald cypress trees with incredible flat tops, coastal redwood trees that are the tallest in the world, bristlecone pines, that are the oldest trees on the planet, and Yosemite, a standalone place of power in the world. I realized that to connect people to these trees, they must first feel connected to their native environments. As the constructs of society continue to disconnect us and create division amongst humanity, I believe bonsai has a bigger purpose to play—that was when it became an art form for me. I spent my first few years trying to find an identity independent of the institutionalization of my Japanese apprenticeship, which came to me from driving across the continent of North America, recognizing this was something different and where I was headed—which is exactly what I’ve done. That’s when it became an art for me. It wasn’t a decision to pursue a creative endeavor, it was a calling and a recognition that representation was not being used with one of the most powerful mediums—that art could be created from a living organism that jointly collaborates with you in the pursuit of beauty.


Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Harold Sasaki, of Colorado Bonsai Limited, who took a tremendous amount of time out of his schedule to foster my bonsai passion, and also a large number of other young, budding bonsai artists in the Rocky Mountain region, who are making the Rocky Mountain Bonsai Society great, and some of whom, are now contributing to the growth of bonsai on a national and international level.

Website: https://bonsaimirai.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bonsaimirai/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BonsaiMirai/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/bonsaimirai

Image Credits
Please credit Bonsai Mirai for all images.

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutColorado is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.