I’d been hoping to add to my International Bonsai Library, as my mind has been full of people who’ve influenced me but I hadn’t yet had the patience to pen to the blog. Matt Reel is one of those guys. I alluded to Matt earlier this month in the Taikan-ten post (he had some amazing photos from the show on his blog). I was incredibly fortunate and Matt was very gracious to agree to a brief interview via e-mail over the past month. Please enjoy our conversation below and stop by Matt’s blog to say thanks!

Me: How did you get started with bonsai?

Matt: Bonsai found me when I was walking around the mall in my Portland neighborhood on a typical afternoon, nothing out of the ordinary, until my eyes were drawn to a peculiar looking kiosk.  I was 13 and didn’t really know what to think about the…