PSBA General and Business Meeting - November 26th at CUH - Guest Artist Mike Pistello
PSBA is conducting our annual business meeting on November 26th at the Center for Urban Horticluture beginning at 7PM followed by a presentation and bonsai demonstration from this month's guest artist, Mike Pistello. Please join us. Mike will also be hosting a workshop at Bonsai Northwest from 11:30AM to 3:30PM on Sunday November 25th. And, if enough people are interested, Mike is willing to host a second workshop on Monday afternoon in Maltby. Please contact Lynn for more information and to sign up.
About Mike:
Mike Pistello began practicing bonsai twenty-five years ago at just thirteen years old. His grandfather had begun cultivating bonsai in the early seventies after attending the Fuji Bonsai Club's first-ever show, and introduced Mike to the art. At fourteen, Mike joined the Fuji Bonsai Club, active at the time in Berkley, CA. There he met Jimmy Inadomi, who would become his first teacher, schooling him on the basics and laying the foundation for future success. A year later, Mike joined the Yamato Bonsai Kai and met one of the founders, Yoneo Uchida (better known as Johnny). Mr. Uchida is the proprietor of Grove Way Bonsai Nursery in Hayward, CA, and has served as sensei to the Yamoto club for over forty years. Mike and Johnny quickly became life-long friends and as Mike's skills improved, Johnny allowed him to style many of his personal bonsai.
In the early two-thousands, Mike met Boon Manakitivipart and Boon's friend and senpai (senior apprentice, mentor) Akio Kondo. Both men had apprenticed with Kihachiro Kamiya in Japan and practiced a style of bonsai for which Mike had great respect. Inspired by their work, Mike joined the Bay Island Bonsai Club and partook in Boon's famous Bonsai Intensive Series. In the ensuing years, Mike has also worked with internationally recognized artists Ryan Neil and Matt Reel.
Mike is a member of the Bay Area Bonsai Associates and the East Bay Bonsai Club. He has conducted workshops at multiple Golden State Bonsai Federation conventions and volunteers at the GSBF Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt. He is entrusted as the custodian of a particular juniper styled by the legendary Masahiko Kimura in 1987 on his first visit to the United States. Mike has performed demonstrations for many clubs throughout the Bay Area and enjoys teaching bonsai as often as his schedule allows. Some of his favorite species and specialties are: Japanese black pine, Japanese red pine, Sierra juniper, California juniper, and the Itoigawa and Kishu cultivars of shimpaku juniper.