Talk is Part of the Weis Center’s Year-Long Trees Series
The Weis Center for the Performing Arts will welcome speaker Carl Achhammer Jr., a bonsai artist and current president of the NEPA Bonsai Society on Wednesday, April 1 at 12:00 p.m. in the Weis Center Lobby. The noon talk is free and open to the public.
This talk is part of the Weis Center’s year-long Trees Series. For more information, visit go.bucknell.edu/TreesSeries
Carl will discuss the history of the art of bonsai, misconceptions, styles and how to get started.
Carl Achhammer Jr.’s passion for the art of bonsai developed over 25 years ago, when a musician friend gifted him a small tree for his birthday. Since then, he has studied with more than 25 bonsai artists from all over the globe and his collection of trees has grown into the mid hundreds. He currently studies and occasionally works for Bjorn Bjorholm’s studio Eisie-en in Nashville, TN one of the tops schools in the US. In 2017 Carl traveled to Japan for the World Bonsai Convention where he learned from more of the best masters in the world.
A leader in the local and regional Bonsai communities, Carl is the current president of the NEPA Bonsai Society which has existed over 35 years. He is also on the board of the Mid Atlantic Bonsai Societies as the Vice President, Vendor Coordinator and Susquehanna club representative, and was recently elected as the next President.
As a teacher, he began instructing bonsai at Midway Garden Center in Pittston with groups and private students, and developed a “Bonsai and Beer” class in which students create their own trees at local breweries. He recently started his own studio Zenchaser Bonsai and attends many local art shows, including the Wyoming Valley Fine Arts Fiesta as an Artist in Residence for over 12 years.
Zenchaser Bonsai’s newest project is his own shop and studio at Keller’s Garden Center in Exeter, Pa. Here he continues teaching new students, creating new bonsai and educating the general public in the art of bonsai. At Keller’s the goal is to create a new buzz for the art in the local area and eventually start bonsai school.
A great passion for the art motivates Carl to constantly seek out new information, tree knowledge and techniques to pass on to his students.
For more information about the Weis Center for the Performing Arts, go to Bucknell.edu/WeisCenter or search for the Weis Center on Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube.