The Inspired Heart: An Artist's Journey of Transformation [Paperback]

Jerry Wennstrom (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 12, 2003

Tells of a life lived by the singular requirement of Grace--to remain fearlessly attuned to the heart.

Editorial Reviews

Review

In a society where everything is never enough, Jerry Wennstrom's book is an unconditional gift. This amazing story is chronicled with great humor and clarity. Crazy characters crop up all around him, but he draws each one into the still point that he so effortlessly inhabits. Calm and generous to the core, he survives in ways that can only be called miraculous, as the inspired art form of his life comes full circle. Everything matters. Everything magically fits into place. -- Laura Chester, author of Holy Personal: Looking for Small Private Places of Worship

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 The Seven Whispers: Listening to the Voice of Spirit

About the Author

Jerry Wennstrom was born in New York in 1950 and went to art school for three years there. Instead of completing a degree program, though, at age 29 he set out to discover the rock-bottom truth of his life. After years of questioning his own motives as an artist and getting by on next to nothing, he moved to Whidbey Island and re-emerged into the current art scene with his wildly inventive sculpture.

Product Details

• Paperback: 188 pages
• Publisher: Sentient Publications (September 12, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971078696
• ISBN-13: 978-0971078697
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #527,026 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jerry Wennstrom is an artist, author of "The Inspired Heart: An Artist's Journey of Transformation" (available as both paper book and audiobook)and subject of Parabola and Sentient Publications documentary videos, "In the Hands of Alchemy" and "Studio Dialogue." Jerry lectures and offers film presentations internationally and writes monthly articles for Inferential Focus, a New York City think tank and consulting firm. Many of his articles are featured in Mythic Journeys Magazine. And Jerry's art is featured in a new film, also entitled Mythic Journeys. The tower that he built on his Whidbey Island, Washington property and his life's story is featured in the book, Holy Personal by Laura Chester. For more information see his web site at- www.handsofalchemy.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Art is in the word Heart, January 19, 2003

By 

Nanda Currant (New Mexico, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Inspired Heart: An Artist's Journey of Transformation (Paperback)

The realness of Jerry's journey touches my life. Each story teaches me something about myself and I am always in need of just what is being said. Sometimes I don't know I have that need inside but by the end of each story I am comforted and challenged to come to a more honest place about where I create from, live from, love from and am reminded of how unique each person's journey is and how universal. I respond to the book as an art person, a person seeing how God is in simple clear acts and consequences and how the world will survive it's constant greed and destructive enterprises. I have seen Jerry work and his studio and he makes what he does out of junk, simple things and cast offs. I think of the beauty in those bits and how he can see their possibility. He sees that in people and does not write them off as criminal or junkie or even great artist. He finds what they are about by their nature and his own. I think this book is invaluble for teachers, artists, seekers and cynics..It is beautiful as well as intelligent and heartfelt.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Trusting the Deep Intelligence of the Universe, June 8, 2004

By 

Cynthia Sue Larson "www.realityshifters.com" (San Francisco bay area, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Inspired Heart: An Artist's Journey of Transformation (Paperback)

Artist Jerry Wennstrom shocked the New York art community in 1979 when he destroyed his paintings at the pinnacle of his illustrious career. Guided by an inner passion to connect directly to divine consciousness, Wennstrom gave away his possessions and began a journey based on complete surrender to life experience. THE INSPIRED HEART shares Wennstrom's personal journal of how he lived for years in a state of grace and faith, discovering divine intelligence and inspiration in a wide breadth of experiences. Wennstrom at various times fasted, experienced the sublime joys of sharing special moments with neighborhood children, and faced potential muggers with loving kindness... to receive loving kindness in return. THE INSPIRED HEART shows us how, "Enlightenment is not a grand finale that leaves us blissfully risen, Buddha-like, above the suffering of the world. It is a deep and unconditional surrender to what already exists and total trust in the larger inherent intelligence, which is willing to lead the way."

I love the color pictures of Wennstrom's art in the middle of this book, and the way Wennstrom's autobiographical short stories weave themselves in dreamy fashion through the places and times of his fascinating life. THE INSPIRED HEART shares the raw and simple beauty of one man's pure heart as it shows us how miraculous, magnificent and rich our lives can be when we let go of everything and allow ourselves to be fully present in this moment, now.

-- Cynthia Sue Larson
author of "AURA ADVANTAGE: How the Colors in Your Aura Can Help You Attain What You Desire and Attract Success"

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book I've read in a long time..., October 3, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Inspired Heart: An Artist's Journey of Transformation (Paperback)

This is a wonderful account of an unusual life, not just the vision of an artist, but a vision of what it means to be a human being, to face the fear of contact with the world around us and to begin a life guided entirely by the heart. YOu won't be able to put this down until you've read to the end.