Like a patchwork quilt, each story and each connection in Jerry’s life is a patch, a snapshot in time, of his life journey of self-discovery, deep within and beyond the surface level of appearances, which normally reveal only a reflection of what the eye can see. No longer satisfied with this surface level of identity, Jerry decided to embrace what he refers to as “the mystery” of life, the essence of life, beyond illusion. He needed to let go of all forms of identity; this included what he and others identified him as—an artist, a reflection of his passion.

Along the way, he met some incredible people, with whom each had a story to tell. Jerry unconditionally accepted them, regardless of what difficulties they were going through at the time. With that often quiet stillness and presence that he allowed, uncontaminated by the mind, he was able to be in that space openly and freely, which allowed others to share in that space openly and freely, without fear of judgment or ridicule. The usual illusory walls of separation found in most human connections crumbled and disappeared into thin air when the people he met and encountered for the first time felt that unconditional presence and love.

In being there for them, he was also able to be there for himself, unconditionally. Regardless of what difficulties arose for him along the way, he found that each one worked itself out. The mystery and his intuition carried him forward. Regardless of which direction it took him, he went with the flow of life, with complete acceptance of every experience, every moment, and every outcome.

He awakened to the true essence of life, which has no identity, no labels, just pure awareness. Free from attachments, now he is able to create art, unconditionally, without expectations, without judgment, without attachments to it or to the outcome. He is now able to go beyond appearances and dive deep into the unknown, into the mystery of life, which is now reflected in his artwork.

—Pamela J. Wells, SelfLess Being

The Inspired Heart by Jerry Wennstrom is a remarkable and inspiring account of one man's journey into complete surrender. We have all read and talked about trusting in existence, and here is a man who stays with that commitment to the very edge and beyond, exploring every angle and corner of what trust can really mean. The fruit of this exploration is transmitted through Jerry's extraordinary art. This is a must read book for every translucent reader.

—Arjuna Ardagh, author of The Translucent Revolution

Highly recommended

The Inspired Heart is artist Jerry Wennstrom’s episodic memoir, beginning shortly before his infamous destruction of his artworks and tracking his spiritual journey to a point where his creativity reconnected with the creative source.

Wennstrom explores the individuals who moved in and out of his life and contributed in their various ways to his profound spiritual experience. He analyses even the most mundane – approaching everything from a point of grace and openness.

In the 1970s Jerry Wennstrom was a prolific artist making a name for himself in New York . When Jerry eventually admitted to himself that he’d chosen a career in art because it was the part of a lost relationship that he loved the most, the realization marked a shift in his thinking.

A number of synchronistic events followed: an aging artist losing his eyesight, a mystical encounter with a wise woman who had asked her god for clarification when her career path suddenly shifted, finding a frame with the canvas cut out of it. Jerry began to realize that he needed to let go of his paintings in order to end the external influences on his soul, and free himself to seek his true internal and spiritual experience. After a month of soul-searching he destroyed his art and gave away his possessions.

At the time a documentary about Jerry’s art was close to being wrapped up. The end of film tied in with the destruction of his work and he was interviewed about his decision. By the time the documentary was screened, Jerry didn’t intend to view it, but serendipitously ended up attending with a Jewish friend and a Middle Eastern lawn ornament seller. He says the screening of the documentary was to be the most powerful night of his life, as he came to understand that destroying his artwork had converted it into an “empowering life force” that would begin to impact the world more radically than it could have done intact.

Wennstrom believes that art is a form of reverence for the source. His early work was reckless – produced one after another like a production line, without stopping to listen to what it was the piece was trying to draw out of him before moving on to the next. As deep as those pieces may have been, Jerry was only connecting with them superficially.

For the most part Wennstrom reserves judgment and analysis of both his own and other people's actions and life journeys, and doesn't attempt to solve the world's problems by suggesting an alternative way of existing. Instead he illustrates one person's peculiar and profound experience, with the hope that others can draw inspiration and understanding of their relationships with others and the world.

Jerry’s straightforward, pleasant writing style and the short, episodic format of The Inspired Heart make this an easy read despite the unusual and sometimes intense subject matter. I found it energizing and I highly recommend this fascinating book.

—Elsa Neal, BellaOnline

This is a book that gives a whole new meaning to the term “Starving Artist.” It is for all those who ever wondered what would happen if they cast their fates to the wind and let life unfold as it would. Jerry let go of the illusion we call “control” when he destroyed all of his artwork and walked away from his artistic career to find his unique spiritual path. Individuals among us have always left the tribe to find a different way to see the world and eventually bring that vision back to the tribe to continue our evolution. The information that Jerry brings back could not be more timely as we watch the inevitable shortcomings of excessive materialism.

—Lotus Guide

Spiritual Food for the Soul

Allow Jerry to take you on his magical and enlightening soul pilgrimage. As he invites you to accompany him along his life adventures, he introduces you to selfless acts of deep, human spirit and his fascinating relationships. Often, by chance encounters, Jerry immerses the reader into impromptu stories of surrealistic wonder and actual life experiences.

From his friendship with two, elderly sages; or E.T., the street kid - Jerry's autobiography inspires the uninspired, captivates the soul and brings a vital spark to everyday monotony. Jerry illustrates and exhibits the simplest of miracles - through soul journey.

His words, "...In the shadow lands of life's most terrifying experiences, something inherently noble in the human heart unexpectedly enters in and renders the voices of good and evil mute..." Poetically expressed, Jerry's wisdomful words echo transcendental advice into the inner-knowing and evolutionary, inner-peace process.

Broken down into humankind's most simple form, Jerry withdraws from `normal' human existence to fully embrace life's spiritual side. (His eventful life, in my own opinion, somewhat parallels the life of the so-called Jerry in the film, Down and Out in Beverly Hills.) Noncomedically however, he lived purely off chance and engaged in most uninspiring conditions; and made do with what life had to offer - never complaining...only transforming.

A human, but humbling experience, Jerry relays how his internal transformation came full circle. A book that promotes personal growth and comprehension of the mortal experience, The Inspired Heart is awe-inspiring, and an exceptional read.

To learn more about Artist/Author Jerry Wennstrom, feel free to visit his website at JerryWennstrom.com; or if you would like more information about how to get your own copy of his book, visit The Inspired Heart today.

—C. Bailey-Lloyd, Holistic Junction

The Inspired Heart: An Artist's Journey of Transformation is an autobiographical account by artist Jerry Wennstrom who, at the age of 29, turned his back on a successful career, destroyed his prolific corpus of work and gave away all of his possessions. In a similar vein as Kerouac, Jerry went out on a decade-long search to find those vital truths that many are never so inclined to look for.

The Inspired Heart details in stories from Jerry's experiences the results of this great experiment in surrender as well as the conclusions he draws from them. Through the stories you'll meet the colourful characters Jerry came across and explore the places which became the settings for his experiment, living simply on whatever came his way in a spirit of surrender, or "letting go" as Jerry calls it. This letting go can be directly likened to a Kierkegaardian leap that not only transformed him as a person, but unleashed more vital currents in him as an artist.

A spiritual journey, yes, but The Inspired Heart has escaped from the cliché catch-phrases and stock images that have become part of other such testaments; this gives The Inspired Heart a credit and sincerity lacking in other works. The result is sincerely spiritual rather than pseudo-spiritual.

You may find some aspects of Jerry's philosophy debateable: is, for example, the "singular requirement of Grace," as Jerry writes, "to remain fearlessly attuned to the heart?" Or is Grace what it is because it is free of any requirement at all? No one, however, can argue with the sincerety of the spirit which he reveals in these pages, which matured through honestly-won experience.

In addition to the black-and-white photographs which illustrate these stories, The Inspired Heart contains 16 pages of colour photos of Jerry's recent sculptures (some of which are featured here). His sculptures, which are interactive, life-sized and multifaceted, speak to us as artifacts from a lost, formerly unknown civilization. But this civilization is not lost, having come to us from inside Jerry's own spirit. The Inspired Heart is the story of how Jerry Wennstrom the artist got to this point.

—Eaom Graham, Bohème Magazine

"I found this book called The Inspired Heart sitting around the house and I picked it up and, as I like to do, looked through the pictures. Well, they were certainly spectacularly engrossing in their originality, color, cleverness and beauty. But, then it happened: I saw how painlessly short each story was, so I risked reading one. I haven't returned the book since then. It is wonderful. I started with the chapter "Healing the Bloodline" and it so rang true in my—in my own experience—it really touched me. Jerry shares his life with such simplicity and candor. I don't know quite what I'm trying to say, but I felt that if everyone on Planet Earth could see themselves with that same lack of self-consciousness and with that same consciousness of the self, we would all feel closer, and have more understanding and compassion, as human beings. Well, I'm savoring this book and whomever was next on the list to read it will just have to wait (I can't be compassionate ALL the time)!!!"

—Andrea Kulin, early childhood teacher and storyteller

Jerry Wennstrom's book, The Inspired Heart, moves me so deeply that I am tempted to lather my review with lengthy quotations as I struggle with the relative inarticulateness this task evokes in me! Not doing so is the best way I can pay tribute to its profundity and depth. There is a kind of simplicity about Jerry's way of describing the episodes and relationships that have filled his life which reflects the purity of his own inner process as he brings it to bear on the choices he has made and the consequences of those choices - on the people he has danced with, loved, learned from, helped to heal, along the way.

His is no ordinary life, and the fact that he makes it sound so simple, so inevitable, merely reflects his "way" of living it - as does the form of his art. Complex, beautiful, many-layered, hieratic, visionary, somehow ancient in its sense of knowing - these are all terms that apply, both to Jerry's art and to his life.

There is an autobiographical substructure to Jerry's narrative throughout his book which functions as an armature for the sculpture that is his real life as a soul embodied - necessary as a support for the emergent sculpture, allowing it to hold its shape - but, like the armature, only the basic shape or pattern upon which the sculpture itself will be fully realized. Manifesting that fullness of its form constitutes the real narrative of the book.

The Inspired Heart is most assuredly what has moved Jerry from moment to moment, from year to year, in his art as in his relationships and choices. "In the Hands of Alchemy," the title of a video made by Parabola magazine in recent years of Jerry's life and his art, is an equally accurate description of the manner in which Jerry has learned to live - with no pre-set assumptions about what may need to happen at any choice point, and with trust, openness and humility that his life belongs not so much to himself as to what he calls "formlessness" - which impells him to surrender to a kind of "knowing unknowing" - a kind of holy foolishness that is only valid in retrospect as a living principle but must be "sweated out" on each occasion that calls for a choice.

Jerry is basically a teacher - and, like the Sufi masters of the past, his teachings appear in the form of stories - either verbally or in sculptural form. His statues are spiritual biographies, using found materials and surrendipitously acquired artifacts. Multi-layered, they express the complexities of human ambiguity and depth - as well as the process of spiritual growth.

—Mary Leue, Down-to-Earth Books

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

“I highly recommend Jerry Wennstrom’s soul-filled work. In The Inspired Heart: An Artists Journey of Transformation, Jerry beautifully tells simple stories that speak of the charity of the soul, painting pictures of the secret meanings in magical moments and interconnection of all life (and death). His alphabetic canvass speaks the songs of God and how being touched by simple acts of kindness lights the way in a still sleeping world. He provides a guiding beacon through the uncharted waters of our evolution by recounting his life's stories.”

—Peter H. Rosen, founder, V.A.R.I.O.U.S. Media