Bonsai Exhibit Sprouts At Fresh Cafe This Week

Ryan Greer working on one of his bonsai plants PHOTO FROM RYAN GREER

Ryan Greer working on one of his bonsai plants PHOTO FROM RYAN GREER

After five years of carefully watering, clipping branches and maintaining the roots of

dozens of bonsai plants, Ryan Greer showcases his work in Bonsai from Nov. 20 to 22 at Fresh Cafe Downtown, with a reception from 5 to 8 p.m. opening night.

Greer, who always had loved art growing up, studied biology at Portland State University. When he discovered bonsai, it seemed like the perfect marriage of the two disciplines.

“It is a combination of art and biology, so it combined my interests,” he explains.

A few of the 30 or so trees on display have been with Greer since those early days in Portland, but his bonsai practice really began to ramp up when he moved home to the Islands.

“One of the good things about Hawaii is that tropical plants grow a lot faster, so you can develop a shape (of the plant) a lot more rapidly, unlike the Mainland, where you have to wait for the growing season in the spring and summer,” Greer says.

When choosing a plant, Greer explains, there are certain things you should look for. He scours nurseries for plants that look promising — plants that have an interesting, thick trunk shape, plentiful branches and smaller leaves.

“You have to look for the potential and see where it can go — and then take it there,” Greer says.

Greer, who by day is a printer manager at Queen’s Medical Center, also takes hauntingly close-up eye photos in a booth he calls Amateur Optometry. The idea has its origins in an alcohol-fueled conversation one night. Greer and his friends were playing with a lens attachment on his phone, trying to find cool things to take close-ups of. So they tried their eyes. The result is an intricate, detailed shot of the iris.

“You look at other people’s faces and eyes every day, but you never really look that close,” Greer says.

The Amateur Optometry booth can be found at Fresh Cafe during First Fridays and at Art + Flea. For photos, see @amateuroptometry on Instagram.

Although Greer is about 30 years younger than most of the other bonsai practitioners he knows, he hasn’t let that deter his passion.

“It’s like creating a sculptural landscape that you can hold in your hand that is actually alive,” he says. “And, it keeps changing. It’s never actually finished. Every day it changes a little bit. Every second it changes a little bit. It is something that you keep developing indefinitely, really.”

The opening reception also will include pupu and drinks from Fresh Cafe. Greer also will have a limited number of early stage bonsai from his personal collection for sale, complete with easy-to-follow instructions for beginners.