Book and DVD published by www.sentientpublications.com
ORIGINAL PARABOLA DVD BOOKLET~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jerry's early paintings and more recent sculptures are featured in Mythic Journeys a new film by Imaginal Cells Inc.
There are some interesting artists on board -- Alan Lee (Lord of the Rings) and Brian and Wendy Froud (creators of Yoda in “Star Wars.”)
And see some of the art work HERE.
Produced & Directed by STEVEN & WHITNEY BOETIM CURRY
LANCE HENRIKSEN
MARK HAMILL
INTERVIEWS WITH :
Best Selling Author
DEEPAK CHOPRA
President, Joseph Campbell Foundation
ROBERT WALTER
Author & Healer
SOBONFU SOME
Professor & Author
JEAN SHINODA BOLEN
Church of Religious Science
REV. TRICIA KLINK
Academy Award Nominee
TESS HARPER
ORIGINAL STOP-MOTION CHARACTERS BY:
Award-Winning Artists, Labryinth, Dark Crystal BRIAN & WENDY FROUD
ARTWORK BY:
Academy Award Winner, Lord of the Rings
ALAN LEE
Award-Winning Artist, Stardust
CHARLES VESS
Stop-Motion Animator
MICHAEL GRANBERRY
Story Animator
Emmy Award Winner
RON NOBLE
Director of Photography
ARMANDO SALAS
ARTWORK CONTRIBUTED BY:
JAN DEYLTH
MICHEAL GREEN
STU JENKS
VIRGINIA LEE
JERRY WENNSTROM
C.J. BLOOMER
& Many others coming soon!
VOICE-OVER DIRECTOR :
Emmy Award Winner & Animation Director CHARLIE ADLER
PRODUCTION ADVISOR:
Producer of Borat, Zoolander, Dodgeball
MONICA LEVINSON
ALSO FEATURING
Steven AizenstatPsychologist, President of Pacifica Graduate Institute
Chungliang Al HuangPresident of the Living Tao Foundation and Director of the International Lan Ting Institute
Coleman Barks, PhD.Poet and Professor Emeritus of English, University of Georgia
Ari Berk, PhD.Professor at Central Michigan University
Tom Blue WolfFounder and President of EarthKeepers, International
Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D.Author and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of California Medical Center
Andres BotranSecretary of Food and Nutrition, Guatemala
Duncan CampbellHost of Living Dialogues
Deepak Chopra, M.D.Founder of The Chopra Center, Director of The Alliance for a New Humanity
William Doty, PhD.Professor Emeritus of Humanities and Religious Studies, University of Alabama
James Flannery, PhD.Winship Professor of Arts and Humanities, Emory University
Betty Sue Flowers, PhD.Director of the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library
Honora FoahCo-President and Creative Director, Mythic Imagination Institute
Maren Tonder HansenFounding Member, Pacifica Graduate Institute; Board Member, Joseph Campbell Foundation
Lorin HollanderWorld Renowned concert pianist
Michael KarlinFounder and Co-President, Mythic Imagination Institute
Lynne KaufmanAuthor, Playwright, Associate of the Joseph Campbell Foundation
Rev. Tricia KlinkMinister, Church of Religious Science
Ellen KushnerHost of WGBH Radio’s Sound & Spirit, Co-Founder of the Interstitial Arts Movement
Michael Meade, PhD.Author, Founder and Director of the MOSAIC Multicultural Foundation
Michelle NunnCo-Founder and CEO, Hands on Atlanta
George RoschClinical Psychologist, Pacifica Graduate Institute
Arsenio RodriguezSecretary General, Alliance for a New Humanity
Sobonfu SomeAuthor, Founder of Ancestors Wisdom Spring
Robert WalterExecutive Director, Joseph Campbell Foundation
~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~
Radical Change Group: Ideas for Transformation
Jerry's Artistic Journey
Video Narration by David Whyte
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A poem by Mud (Steven Weitzman) - Co-Author, Landscape of the Misty Eye. Mud is a long time friend of Jerry Wennstrom's from New York. Mud offers a poetic description of a chance encounter, where he ran into Jerry on the street. The piece defines something of the mood of Jerry's early wanderings, after destroying his art and giving all he owned away.
The Middle Of Nowhere
He replied,
"So then, how are you doing?"
We stood there together,
on the narrow asphalt sidewalk,
leaning against a bent up guard rail,
only a foot or two from the road,
cars speeding by kicking up dust
and stirring the still-born air.
Behind us was a large empty parking lot
and in the distance,
a building with a sign that read, Shoppers Paradise;
an old run-down place that once served
this small, dilapidated
Hudson Valley town.
Across the street was a car dealer,
shiny automobiles behind a metal fence,
baking in the sun and a Mexican restaurant.
Every once in a while the smell
of melting cheese or burning beef
would waft silently over us,
growing out of the dark asphalt like the
remnants of two trees in a place where
the forest had burned.
I was waiting for my car to be repaired.
We were friends.
I was a musician and a poet.
He was an artist.
He had destroyed all of his work.
Some people said, they thought he was
“out of it.”
I did not think so.
whenever anyone asked me
What was happening,
I wanted to say, “God.”
I never did.
I guess God is one of those things
that happens to you when you least expect it;
like when you aren’t looking
and suddenly someone is standing at your side,
asking, “what’s happening?”
It was a hot day and we were both
just standing there,
together,
in the middle of nowhere.
Greg Levoy, author of the best selling book "Callings" interviews Jerry in the Tower for a new book Greg is writing called- Vital Signs: The Drive for Aliveness.~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hands of Alchemy an Interview with Jerry Wennstrom by Judith Campanaro
Judith Campanaro- The ability to trust the mystery that surrounds us is an amazing gift.
JC- What is the real self? Who am I?
JW- The real self is our true and creative individuality. It is our unique expression of God. There is a saying, “There is no other God but all of us together.” The only real accomplishment in life comes in realizing and expressing in the world our unique expression of that totality we call God.
JC- Peace of mind. What is the true bottom line?
JW- Peace of mind comes to us as a gift of grace when we have done our best to do all that we can do, and discover that our efforts have their limitations. At this juncture we must surrender into the unknowing we are inevitably faced with. It is a complete surrender to the metaphorical death experience, which brings about peace of mind and comes to us as an element of grace. The Christian concept of “Eternal Life” embodies this principal. One must experience the defeat of one’s will and effort to receive this grace. In the cyclical nature of our lives, once the template has been struck, grace (peace of mind) comes to us over and over again (eternal) at the point of death. So “death” becomes a gift and a point of renewal, rather than the dreaded experience it is for most of us.
JC- What lies behind the search for self-development?
JW- What lies behind the search for self-development is the quest for God and perhaps the fear of death. Either way the initial impulse keeps us moving forward even with an occasional step back. It is important for us, especially as we grow older, not to loose sight of the possibility of receiving the final gift of our “self-development.” What we once called “enlightenment” was reserved for the mystics. Now, however, it is a requirement of our time and more available than ever before. I would even go so far as to say, we must each take full responsibility for our enlightenment at this time because there is no escaping the power of its current demand on us. It is a collective requirement! If there is anything that is going to save us and save all that we love about our world, it will be our surrender at this very special place in the cycle where we are collectively experiencing a larger, metaphoric death.
JC- Letting go. How do you let it happen?
JW- It happens for most of us “kicking and screaming as we go!" The universe is in perfect order and we all create the conditions that will teach us the things that we need to learn. Most of us do not pursue the kind of deeper understanding that helps us see the value of letting go and we may even come to see it as a defeat and something to be resisted (and it is a defeat of the ego.) As a result, many of us unconsciously create the conditions where our lives come undone and we are forced to let go. This undoing comes when everything that we strategically and intelligently mapped-out as our identity becomes too small a container to hold the larger creation coming through our lives. For many of us this can be a place of enormous suffering if we cannot let go and surrender to the power of the new creation. The suffering we may be experiencing can ultimately be transformed into something resembling the original dream we held for ourselves, if we can stay with the difficulty, grief and work that we are thrown into.
However, this is not the only option in the process of letting go. We can also become conscious, willing participant in a way that might be described as the “Hero’s Journey.” We will still have to go through the death of our ego-identity, which remains difficult, but our involvement in the process becomes more consciously tended and deliberate. In this scenario we courageously take the risks we are compelled to take, let go where we have to and remain open to the emerging new awareness. In this case, we live out the experience more like a warrior than a victim. Deep listening and a courageous, appropriate response to the moment's calling can eliminate self-created, useless suffering for anyone.
JC- How can we be more fully in the present moment?
JW- By paying attention, experimenting and discovering for ourselves the power that comes through our actions when we can remain present with the demands of the moment. What we discover is that remaining fully present gives us access to all that we need to live our lives beautifully and in the most efficient way possible. If we are busy elsewhere, with the past or the future, we miss the creative potential that is most potently available here and now. When we come to see that there is no viable alternative, we make the now our priority and avoid the unnecessary tension and chaos created by a delayed or dissipated response to life.
JC- How do you hear the "whispers along the way"? How do you draw on the wisdom within?
JW- Reverence is the key. When we see that we live in a conscious, mysterious and celebratory universe, and approach life with the innocent unknowing required of such a universe; we begin to hear the whispers, respond creatively and eventually join the celebration. It is no more difficult than that. Celebration is celebration – at the grand party everyone has a place, is cared and provided for. Most of us, however, live in fear of non-existence. We must listen, see and trust that our place is held under any circumstances and not be distracted by petty fears and doubts.
JC- Why is the global crisis a crisis of consciousness?
JW- The more conscious we become, the more we begin to see the interconnectedness of all things. As we learn to value and tend the natural balance of our inner lives, that same balance begins to extend outward to include balance in our world. With a sense of balance, we begin to clearly see that if even one sentient being is unaccounted for, in the larger scheme of things, we are all lost. With balance come beauty and the need to cultivate and apply that sense of beauty to all aspects of life. Caring and a balanced sense of beauty can solve any global crisis!
JC- When a person's old identity no longer serves them how can they create and focus in new directions?
JW- There is something self-maintaining about the epic event that brings about the loss of a tired, old identity. All we need do is trust the process and be fully present with what comes. The first step is letting go of that which no longer serves our lives but we are too afraid to release. There is something about the open hand, as it lets go of that which it has been clinging to, that is both exciting and terrifying for most of us. Yet, if we cannot make the sacrifice and be with the unknowing of an open hand, something new and exciting can never enter and be held. The meaning of sacrifice is “to make sacred.” I find that the gods are very efficient beings-- all that we have invested our hopes and dreams into, and have placed on the altar with a willingness to let them go, have a way of being sanctified and returned to us in ways unimaginable. In closing, I will share a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke that speaks to this:
Dann bete du, wei es dich dieser lehrt
(To that younger brother)
Now pray,
as I who came back from the same confusion
Learn to pray.
I returned to paint upon the altars
those old holy forms,
but they shone differently,
fierce in their beauty.
So now my prayer is this:
You my own deep soul,
trust me. I will not betray you.
My blood is alive with the many voices
telling me I am made of longing.
What mystery breaks over me now?
In its shadow I come to life.
For the first time I am alone with you—
You, my power to feel.
- Rainer Maria Rilke
From Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God,
Translated by Anita Burrows and Joanna Macy.
(Permission granted to Jerry Wennstrom by translators.)
~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~
By Dawn Baumann Brunke (Editor)
Sacred Marriage by Jerry WennsromFor Wennstrom, it was to open to the energy of life itself. In releasing the structure of daily habits and routines, he learned to trust and appreciate the significance of each moment. This entailed relying on intuition, listening keenly to the deeper nature of feelings, and wisely observing the ways in which our inner world reflects the outer, and vice versa.
Wennstrom’s journey was one of evocative transformation—not only for himself, but for all of us. As he shares in his 2002 book, The Inspired Heart: “We are at a rare time in the history of our world. Consciousness is attempting to come through the spirit of our lives. It brings with it all that we need to live out its gift. At the same time, our old ways of being on the planet are beginning to fail. Our social forms and structures are radically changing and breaking down. Our mother, the Earth, is ailing! We are truly in uncharted territory.”
DAWN: Let’s talk more about consciousness “attempting to come through the spirit of our lives.” Do you still feel this as strongly now as when you wrote the book? And, how are you personally working with consciousness expressing itself through the spirit of your art?
JERRY: Yes, I feel consciousness is coming through more than ever. What was once a whisper has become a scream. If we are listening, we hear the quieter whisper of emerging consciousness, give ourselves to the transition at hand and avoid useless suffering associated with denying the inevitable. If we cannot give ourselves to transformation grace-fully, circumstances move us along kicking and screaming.
You can see this lack of grace playing itself out in our current administration. America is going through the death of an old identity. It is a metaphoric death, which we are perfectly capable of transitioning through. However, when we hold on to an idea of ourselves that no longer serves the collective whole, we experience the death literally, as an external threat. It is clear to those of us who have dealt with the metaphor internally what must be done politically. For whatever reason, our government does not see the metaphor and is choosing to focus instead on the literal projection. The only literal way to maintain a dying identity that has pushed beyond creation, into destruction, is through aggression, which is where we are at as a country.
In relation to my art—it is in retrospect that I see how, for example, one of my sarcophagus-like sculptures translates the death/life metaphor. Someone I met in St Louis recently visited my studio for the first time and said, “You know, if someone were not in a very good state of mind they might be a little frightened by your art!” Initially, some people experience my sculptures as death-like. Paradoxically, these sculptures also dispense gifts, are whimsical, playful and life affirming. Those who can get beyond their fear and remain open walk away inspired, bearing gifts. This is also true about the way we approach and perceive the challenging metaphors of our day. We can either approach with courage and faith and grow larger, or we can shrink back, adding power to an ever-increasing shadow of fear. I am not alone in this understanding, for this experience is expressed in many disciplines: spiritual, psychological, artistic and otherwise.
DAWN: What do you think is the biggest fear humans hold these days? And, do you feel that your art is an encouragement to the growth of the psyche in the sense of recognizing and transitioning through this fear?
JERRY: Ultimately the core fear is what it has always been: fear of our demise, whether literal or metaphoric, as in the death of our ego identity.
My only intent as an artist is to remain open to what comes through the spirit of the moment, hopefully without bias. My creative/spiritual journey has been about personal and collective transformation. The most effective means to this end has been to remain as fearlessly present as possible. Generally speaking, some of the more powerful breakthroughs have come to me through questioning and facing personal/collective fears. Naturally, the essence of this exploration is reflected in the overall expression of my artwork.
If an artist’s intent does anything more than hints at the ineffable, the work is reduced to what Joseph Campbell calls “propaganda” (art with an agenda.) What inspires, liberates and empowers the artist will do the same for the world—if the artist has risked everything for one radically, creative breakthrough. To do this, one has to face a level of fear and loneliness so large and culturally ingrained that the risk would deliver either everything or less than nothing! For us to experience liberation, on any front, this same, fearless confrontation with the Mystery is required.
DAWN: I recently watched “In the Hands of Alchemy”, a DVD about your art and life. I was impressed by a comment your wife, Marilyn Strong, made about you: “Wherever you go, transformation follows.” How do you see yourself and your art as agents of transformation, especially in the larger context of collective transformation?
JERRY: When one has gone through a personal transformation, which is connected in spirit to the zeitgeist, one cannot do other than be an agent for the transformational process. I tend to the requirements of transformation in all situations—art and life. Knowing the gift and the inevitability of the transition we are currently living through, I am simply present with others in a way that defines and supports their/our deepest collective longing, in joy and in suffering. This same intuitive sensibility comes through my art in ways that continue to surprise me.
One cannot take any of this “personally” however. The best any of us can do with the mystery of the transformational process we are experiencing is to be a willing participant in something largely unavoidable. The end result of our participation will more resemble a quantum leap than a conscious, deliberate “accomplishment.” If we are honest with ourselves, any freedom, joy or good that comes with our involvement would have to be held with humility and gratitude and seen as an element of Grace.
DAWN: Another key subject in your work, and life, is surrender—or, more precisely, “being open to where surrender leads.” Can you tell us more about that in connection with found objects (another theme that provides the material for much of your work) and how this is consciously integrated into daily life?
JERRY: Surrender is the final act within the context and limits of human effort. It is the defeat of self-determined, unconscious will—‘defeat’ only if that will is attempting to push beyond its natural capacity for meaningful action. Ultimately, surrender is the acceptance of ‘What Is’ in the face of an absolute void of possibility. The end-place of surrender can easily be overlooked, ignored or missed completely—as Lao Tsu warns, “Most people fail at the end.” If, however, one is conscious enough to make a timely surrender, the results can be miraculous. The end becomes the place where a quantum leap carries limited reality over into unlimited new expressions of freedom and remembering.
Surrender is the holy defeat that brings into our lives at our moment of “death” (metaphoric or literal) what has come to be called “Eternity” or “Eternal Life.” This final gift comes to us through grace and could not occur without the prerequisite event of our timely surrender. In the cyclical nature of our lives, we must re-experience that death in ever-changing ways, and allow the grace we originally received to carry us through anew. Eventually, grace becomes our most cherished ally and we become adept at the discipline of surrender, realizing it is the only viable path to freedom and joy we can cultivate.
Integrating found objects into my work is a way of tending the requirements of the moment and surrendering into that which presents itself. I do this by paying attention to what calls and by working reverently with each piece to reveal meaning and beauty. Some of the objects I use are given to me and some are found in junk shops and recycle centers. Clearly, everything is not for everyone or our lives would be filled with an excess of meaningless junk (and some lives are!). Certain objects seem to call attention to themselves or shimmer with possibility.
There is a kind of Alchemy involved in recognizing and allowing spirit in matter to come alive in relation to the larger whole of a complex work of art. Synchronicities come into play and deeper mysteries reveal themselves in unexpected ways. Seemingly meaningless objects become empowered and transformed into the gold of a complete expression in the world. And cultivating this Alchemy to include all aspects of our lives will turn everything into gold.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Journeys by Brian Alger - An Interview with Jerry
&
Creative Process: Tension - Artists of the Living
(David Whyte, Jerry Wennstrom, Thomas Moore)
Film Review:
In the Hands of Alchemy: The Art and Life of Jerry Wennstrom
By New Orleans Author/Social Activist, Remy Benoit
Enchanting – that was the word that came to mind when I first saw the art of Jerry Wennstrom.
There is life-death, myth, chaos and order in his sculptures that reach deep, deep into the heart of the feminine bringing it once more into the light; into a world that so desperately needs the balance of animus and anima.
His creations are of the earth, from the earth; breathe with, flow with the earth, with the goddess. They have been created from bits and pieces of literally of the earth, the sky, the depths and mysteries of the soul and brought together, renewed into new life forms; into great beauty.
Wennstrom’s art has come through the mess and smoke of the metaphorical death that we must accept to begin the transformation to awe and wonder at the creation of which we are a part; a part that is meant to carry it on, each in our unique way.
His work speaks to us – has taken life from the life that came to it through him.
A long time ago, Jerry Wennstrom embarked on an unknown sea giving away all that he had; destroying his existing art work; and sailing without charts, without sextant, without anything but a deep personal commitment to listen to, to follow the voice of the Universe.
To some that is threatening; to others that is insane; to still others it is the only course to sanity, to the true Self; to bringing to the surface through heart and soul archaeology the true creative spirit that life has blessed us with – if we are willing to accept the gift and work from and through it.
I have watched Wennstrom’s work emerge over the last few years; watched the mystery of his renditions of the centuries old confessionals at Assisi take form to grace life.
In a recent interview with Mariel Hemingway at Healthy Life Radio, Jerry noted that sometimes God whispers to us; that we need to go deeper; need to remove the clutter, the noise, the societal impositions on our lives of what we have to do to be able to do that which is our true purpose.
Like all of us, I have heard God whisper – indeed, have heard the whisper grow into a scream in my own life, in the lives of others close to me.
In this new DVD, Wennstrom encourages us to listen to the whisper – accept it as the gift it is and move into the unknown, into the depths of it. I did not just watch this new program that commingles with the old work, but experienced it. While I found many similarities to the old work that had been destroyed, what I found was art that seemed to journey to breath; art that had gone through the metaphorical death to be transformed, to touch life at its core – art that had gone through the mess, the smoke, the mud to symbolically plant flowers, to expose, accept, and transform the dark to emerge with a great, great gift of light. In comparing the work before Jerry set sail on the unknown sea to the new, it was my intense feeling that his earlier figures were waiting to exhale, waiting to be released to breathe wonder and beauty into the world. His journey of transformation has given his art that breath; indeed, that life.
The thought came to mind of the intensity and duration of Jerry’s journey into the creative core of the universe. Fifteen years of living without any direction but that of the Universe is a long time. The question that arose for me was Okay, well, what if you are the father/mother of children; have the ‘full catastrophe’ as Zorba called it – mortgage, job, bills, etc? How do you translate his journey to that of others became the question I asked of him. His response was that each situation was unique and had its own answers.
So, for the last month I have lived with that question – thought about it; heard the whisper
myself; watched others hear it; and sometimes heard the scream coming to people in all different walks of life and observed their responses, and, indeed, their non-responses.
If you experience Mr. Wennstrom’s seminar; if you allow yourself to flow into his art; you will find clarity to answer that question. Think of those who spent their lives ignoring the whisper – where are they now emotionally, spiritually? You will probably find them asking Is that all there is?
Those who embark on the journey; those who move into the whisper or the scream will be noting different things – saying how vast, how open, how blessed is this Universe and its abundance – what is my part - how can I continue to co-create with it – to share its joy and treasures.
My paternal grandfather was a tool and die maker – he had the full catastrophe – not only did he have it, but he had it through the Depression and WWII. Each morning he went to work; in the evenings he sat down to table with his wife and kids. On Sunday mornings he would drop a raw egg into a glass of milk – his signal that a story was coming, usually a long one passing on across generations what life had taught him. When I first saw Jerry’s work, my granddad came to mind. He would come home with bits and pieces of whatevers, and go down into the dark of the basement with them.
Come each Christmas, his train sets would go up in the living room, leaving little room for the furniture, but no one cared because not only were there the vast numbers of trains whistling, smoking their way across intricate layers of tracks, there were also what we as children called his “Go rounds.”
“Go rounds” were his creations – they spun; they went up and down; they lit up; they were celebrations of light that brought joy and his inner light to share with us, to share with the close knit neighborhood that also wondered at them. His journey was different than Mr. Wennstrom’s but it was also into Creation. Grandma had the full catastrophe that she shared with him – her joy, her creativity came through ceramic coated cast iron pots and pans, and a very thin crochet needle and ecru thread to create patterns in table cloths, antimacassars, doilies beautiful to behold. They, and the passed on skill to do them myself, grace our home now. The individual journey, the individual transformation, does not have to shake worlds, just your soul and creative world to find its place. You can, as Grandma did, transform the chore of turning raw food into delicious meals, and thin thread into artistic wonders, with the joy of creative giving.
I cannot recommend this old/new work of Jerry Wennstrom highly enough. Take the journey with an open heart and let it open and begin to free your soul.
Watch, experience, and listen for the whisper – it is there if you are willing to listen – to follow – to face the metaphorical death – and move into the transformation. Along the way you will find many, many gifts; find much to share; perhaps even find what a great, great blessing the full catastrophe is when you open your light onto it and challenge others to do the same. Just imagine if the principles, if the metaphorical deaths and transformations were applied at family and nation levels, what a different world we would know.
Immerse yourself with the beauty of Jerry Wennstrom’s work – touch its truth; touch its surrender; touch its connections – they will help you release your fears, find your true Self, your compassion and connection for the whole of things rather than your lonely separation.
“One” by Jerry Katz - Features chapter on art written by Jerry
Book Review by Alice A. Chestnut ... I am compelled to comment on Jerry Wennstrom's chapter of "becoming nothing" in the nondual perspectives section. A film has been made about the life of Whidbey Island artist, Jerry Wennstrom. Beginning in 1979, Wennstrom destroyed all the art he had created, gave everything he owned away, and began a new life. He sensed an inner and outer world in perfect order and became a willing participant in that order -- he leaped into the void, the ultimate creative act. In reading this chapter, I tasted the "great freedom that nothing is ours to hold or identify with...and that the only territories consistently worth exploring are the badlands of limitation and fear. When we release the personal identity, then our gifts will be sanctified and returned. The attempt to do anything significant in the world before we have been deeply changed ourselves is a way to avoid real change. Good intention counts for very little...doing our own work first leads to our true and unique participation in the world we wish to serve." Jerry Wennstrom and I met in the Heart as I read this chapter, three times in a row. The Heart is the only possible place to meet, to join -- no separation from truth is there. And, I'll end this review with a quote from Wennstrom: "A mature creative life, which has discovered its source, finds it is linked to everything."
"Holy Personal" by Laura Chester is a book featuring a chapter on Marilyn Strong and Jerry Wennstrom’s story and the tower Jerry built on his land on Whidbey Island.
A Wonderful New Book By Laura Chester
"Hi Laura, Thank you so much for sending us your new book. I picked it up from the PO on my way into Seattle with Marilyn, began reading it and couldn't put it down! Just love it *AND* the wonderful artwork. It is so minimal and effective as image to your text. The whole feel of the book is just magic -- A Beautiful Creation! Love, Jerry"
(Jerry's response to receiving the gift of Rancho Weirdo from Laura)
*
Edgewalkers: People and Organizations That Take Risks, Build Bridges, and Break New Ground
(Sights Jerry Wennstrom as an example)
FRIENDS CREATIONS
We met our dear and long time friend Clair Dunne at the Parabola office in NYC when we were there for for Parabola's "Cinema of the Spirit Film Festival." We were privileged to be there and share her joy when the first copy of her book "CG Jung Wounded Healer of the Soul" was handed to her -- hot off the press! You can see a picture of Claire in our "Pictures of Life" section of the blog."Beautifully written and flagrantly creative, Loving by Remy Benoit is a compassionate look at what is most deeply human in the lives of the warriors and their loved ones.
Loving does not judge war, nor does it judge the warrior. Instead, it gives a clear and realistic view of the fragility of the human heart in relation to the untenable conditions of war.
Reading this book, one is left with the certainty that innocence is the inherent condition of the heart and the heart's essential longing comes fiercely alive under the constant threat of death. Loving offers the reader the opportunity to hold this sacred paradox." Artist, author Jerry Wennstrom
Landscape of the Misty Eye by Mud (Steve Weitzman) and Len Solo
"The shadow of our humanity glows redeemed in Way-Marks. Rusty Moe’s poetry lifts us above the tension and angst of paradox and grounds us in the reverent simplicity of surrender."
Here is a wonderful new book by friend Paul Martin. You can order a copy HERE.
Art - Books - Ojai Soul Retreats by Ronda La Rue Contacts:
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