ARTIST INTENTIONALLY DESTROYS ALL OF HIS WORK. In an act of self-discovery, artist gains new perspective.

Sentient Publications, LLC   
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE          
Contact: Connie Shaw      
May 16, 2003   Ph: 303-443-2188
cshaw@sentientpublications.com   

In the late 1970s, Jerry Wennstrom was a rising star in the New York art world. When he realized he was becoming too attached to his identity as an artist, he decided that the ultimate creative leap was to destroy his large body of art and give away all of his possessions. He spent the next 15 years wandering, seeking, listening, and trusting God to take care of him. In his book, The Inspired Heart: An Artists Journey of Self-Exploration, Jerry Wennstrom tells the extraordinary story of his daring exploration into the source of his creativity.

It was a powerful, holy experience that left me shaken and empty, but exhilarated," says Jerry of the destruction of his art. I experienced it as a leap into 'being, rather than the 'doing of creating art. I let go of everything I thought was most 'me. I felt like I was making a leap into a new relationship with the most direct and creative expression I could give myself to." The Inspired Heart tells of a life lived by the singular requirement of Grace-to remain fearlessly attuned to the heart.    

After this extended period of questioning his motives as an artist and getting by on next to nothing, he moved to the state of Washington, got married, and began creating art again in the form of unique, interactive, life-size sculptural pieces made largely out of found objects. The book includes 16 color pages of Wennstroms exquisite and intriguing art and has a foreword by Care of the Soul author, Thomas Moore. Wennstroms art and his life story are also the subject of a film released on video, In the Hands of Alchemy," by Parabola Video.

The Inspired Heart:
An Artists Journey of Transformation
     A new book by Jerry Wennstrom
                                         Foreword by Thomas Moore

                                        
Includes color prints of Jerry's artwork.
                                
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The Inspired Heart:
An Artist's Journey of Transformation
By Jerry Wennstrom             ISBN: 0-9710786-4-6
Soft cover: $18.95                 200 Pages
September 2002                    Spirituality/Art
Sentient Publication www.sentientpublications.com
Distributed by Words Distributing Company, Ingram, New Leaf, Bookpeople,            Baker & Taylor and all major wholesalers.

New books available for review.
Read sample stories: http://handsofalchemy.com/IHForeword.html#foreword

See the web site for Parabola's companion video-
In The Hands of Alchemy:
The Art and Life of Jerry Wennstrom.
http://www.parabola.org/ OR www.JerryWennstrom.com

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I'm sure that many people will find comfort and inspiration in this book. Jerry is able to describe a spiritual journey outside of any ancient tradition or modern system, and I trust that originality. He avoids the many hollow words that sometimes enter contemporary spiritual thought and embodies the idea that you can be fully spiritual and fully secular at the same time. Jerry's experience shows that simply by being receptive to deep intuition and living intelligently from the heart, you can achieve a degree of holiness. In the old Sufi story people were amazed that Mojud, an untutored wanderer, developed the power to heal. I expect Jerry's book to be a source of healing, and so I can ask him the question put to Mojud: "Under whom did you study?" I would expect him to answer, "It is difficult to say."
Thomas Moore, author of -- Care of the Soul and The Reenchantment of Everyday Life
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"If you listen to what Jerry has shared with us you will know how our wisest healers deal with the people in our world. Each person needs someone to 'listen' to them. Jerry has brought us to the inside of listening. Thank you Jerry for your compassion and your true and generous gift of listening and allowing us to eavesdrop. Dahadubul, you have honored each of us with the words shared in this book. These words express your beautiful gift of honoring life in all of its forms." --Vi Hilbert-- 83 year old Salish Elder, Storyteller and Author of Haboo: Native American Stories from the Puget Sound
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This artist's thoughts and experiences of living on the edge will expand and challenge your vision of life's possibilities. Travel along in the "now" as Wennstrom surfs the waves of life and carries the most colorful people with him. -- Joe Kulin Publisher Parabola Magazine
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In Jerry Wennstrom, his life is his art and art his life, a seamless flow from inner to outer expression of light and dark, multileveled, joyously humored and lit with authentic experience of being in service to its source. Above all, this artist has learned to listen to the language of the larger life as it wishes to be lived through him in all its joy, creativity, reverence - and as healing power for our time.    
-- Claire Dunne - Author- CG Jung - Wounded Healer of the Soul
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In giving up everything - possessions, attachments, even speech and food - Jerry Wennstrom found his true self, and something more: the wellspring of human nature. His art reflects that deep level of knowing which links each of us to that part of our nature which is eternal. --Deloris Tarzan Ament, author, Iridescent Light: The Emergence of Northwest Art, and Dark Visions: The Art of Annihilation. (And art critic for The Seattle Times for over twenty years)
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Jerry Wennstrom is an artist who works both with materials and with relationships. This book is truly a story of "pilgrim's progress" told by a man who risked everything to find his true path and the inevitable spiritual gifts that come from helping each other along the way.-- Christina Baldwin author of Life's Companion, Journal Writing as a Spiritual Quest and The Seven Whispers.
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Jerry Wennstrom's book, is an unconditional gift. Calm and generous to the core, we see how the art form of his life comes full circle. Jerry's story illustrates the outrageous transformational healing which comes with a direct and fearless confrontation with death. Everything magically fits into place. As Wennstrom writes in the final chapter of, his book "The personal link to the sacred is all there is when we are fully engaged in our own true
life." This book engages us in a life worth emulation. -- Laura Chester, author, Holy Personal; The Story of the Lake and Lupus Novice
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"We have in Jerry Wennstrom's work something that is very needed for our current times: a life placed in service of the soul's depth. This surrender to a deeper calling and the conviction necessary to craft a life that supports such a response is medicine for our troubled times. If we could all dip into the wellspring of creative faith that Jerry has manifested then our world would be a better place. Jerry is an artist that shows us how to have the courage to bring healing to our world. This is one of the highest callings any of can have and we owe a debt to Jerry for helping to guide us on our collective journey. --David La Chapelle, author-- Navigating the Tides of Change
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The Inspired Heart -- A needed true to life mythic story - Jerry Wennstrom's narrative is piercing and irresistible. His courageous quest for spirit and meaning in a world blinded by consumerism is a modern fairy tale to find the source of art and inspiration. His stories invite the fearless heart to open.
-- Laura Simms-- International storyteller Author of Author of Bone Man andThe Robe of Love
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"This very well-written, full-color illustrated, first-person account of the             creation of the re-born Jerry Wennstrom and his marvelous art is a transformational classic, in my humble opinion. When I was given this book, I devoured it immediately. I was humbled, inspired, stimulated, and changed by reading the details and viewing all of the wonderful photos of his remarkable journey. I loved this book, related deeply to its message, and I think I will likely always consider it one of the jewels of transformational literature." --Joe Bankhead, editor of A Journal of a Wanderer on the Way of Transformation

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The Parabola Magazine Video:
In The Hands Of Alchemy--The Art and Life Jerry Wennstrom
Directed by Phil Lucas ( PBS & Turner Broadcast- The Native American Series) and Mark Sadan (a producer of Sesame Street)
"In the Hands of Alchemy is a delightful film, an alchemical mixture in itself of inspiration, spirituality, art and the story of a remarkable human being." - David Spangler, author, Blessings; Parent as Mystic, Mystic as Parent and Everyday Miracles.

"There is a tremendous kind of courage that Jerry showed in the midst of the chaos and the individual loneliness of the Post-Modern world, to go his own way. It was the ultimate artistic step." -David Whyte author- The Heart Aroused and Crossing the Unknown Sea

About the film:
In the Hands of Alchemy: The Art and Life of Jerry Wennstrom

        In the Hands of Alchemy is a portrait of artist Jerry Wennstrom whose work and life have become one -- a spontaneous exercise in joy and inspiration for all who aspire to make art out of life. By the 1970s, Jerry had acquired a loft space in Nyack, New York and was leading the life of a successful artist, frequently delving into the dark side with his work. However he eventually "painted himself out of painting." Unattached to his creations, he decided after a lengthy fast that the ultimate leap was to destroy all his work. "It was a powerful, holy experience that left me shaken and empty, but exhilarated," says Jerry. He walked out of his loft and for the next ten years lived with nothing, trusting God to take care of him. His journey eventually led him to Whidbey Island in Washington where he met and married teacher/singer Marilyn Strong. Here he birthed a new art from his unconditional soul. Jerry Wennstrom is an ordinary man who has made the extraordinary choice to live, work and be in relationship in a state of surrender to the will of divine energy. This choice affects everyone he comes in contact with. In the Hands of Alchemy is a documentary of this choice and its effect. --Written for Parabola's "Cinema of the Spirit" festival, New York City, October 2000. The film was selected by a committee chaired by director Martin Scorsese.