Artist Interviews Magazine introduces you to Jerry Wennstrom, an amazing artist who has dedicated his life to expressing his soul through different genres of creation. He is a painter, sculpturer, writer, poet and has ventured into creating music. His goal is not to become a celebrity but to transmit his thoughts, experiences, beliefs and philosophy through his art.

Wennstrom’s book “The Inspired Heart” is an autobiography which takes you to experience the painful journeys of his soul in his desperate search of the things we all wonder about: truth, faith, heaven, hell, love, peace and our purpose in life. He traveled from the East Coast to the West Coast, where he met his actual wife, Marilyn Strong, who has been his partner in his continuous spiritual search since then.

His art is unique and it is a challenge to describe it. His sculptures are the most amazing pieces and through them he shows his concepts about life, death, good, evil, body and spirit. Jerry’s works are several feet tall interactive boxes made of wood, metals, glass, stones, bones, hair and lights of different colors. He sculpts tall boxes with mysterious windows and doors that open and reveal secret chambers where other images are sculpted. A lot of the images are double sided with antagonistic versions. Isn't our mind like that?

The following questions and answers are going to let you know more about this incredible artist but if you dare to be involved in his quest I suggest you to visit his site: www.handsofalchemy.com

Interview by Marisa Darnel - Photos by Ed Severinghaus

Being originally a painter, what caused you to have a major shift in your life, first to stop painting and give up art for many years, then to begin doing sculpture?
It was the major shift that initiated everything for me -- the life and art changes resulted from the shift. I began creating the sculptures 15 or more years later. They were created simply for the joy and mystery of discovery. They are very whimsical and interactive and have many mechanical devices—there are surprises and hidden compartments to explore. The sculptures were the celebratory by-product of the more important shift.

The shift took me away from the discipline of active doing (painting.) I was then involved in a new kind of discipline – the discipline of conscious being. This was a shift that took me into a deeper relationship with the formless creative spirit behind inspiration. I also believe the shift that I had given myself to is larger than my individual experience. It is a shift that is emerging as a collective experience expressing itself – not just in art but also in every other discipline. What is coming through the collective psyche as inspiration seems to be expanding our small ideas about ourselves and our world. The shift is larger than anything we might be trying to hold in place or define as our identity. If we are paying attention, this shift will not let us rest in our complacency for very long. I think this is the reason for so much unrest in the world at this time.

In terms of my own journey – my shift was a response within this larger context. For whatever reason, in the late 70’s I sensed the need to open to a more formless and expansive creative experience. The New York Art Scene was a socially acceptable heaven in the late 70s.’ However, I felt no alternative but to turn away from it completely, in order to find grounding, deeper understanding and some larger creative context. In 1979 after destroying my large body of work (some of which can be seen in the Parabola video, In The Hands of Alchemy: The Life and Art of Jerry Wennstrom) and giving everything I owned away, I gave up painting completely for over 15 years. Having given myself to such a complete void on an external level, I proceeded to take life as it came, without interference. Living this way took me into some of the most undesirable and uninhabitable areas of the personal and the collective psyche that I could have explored. Paradoxically, my willing participation in these areas of discovery was rewarded with liberation, beauty and inspiration. I discovered that the most precious gifts are most often hidden in the areas we would rather not explore.

Inspiration was and is a very illusive mystery. In a sense, I gave myself to exploring the holy science of the inspired moment, separate from any form — art or otherwise. The mystery and questions for me became, what were the conditions surrounding that quantum leap that brought an inspired moment to life? And then—how could I give all of my life to the experience of this inspired freedom. Leaping into the void, as I did, was an intuitive decision. I sensed this single act would set in motion the right conditions that would require me to look to the source of inspiration for everything I needed creatively. My intuition proved to be correct and life began to unfold in a new way, which was to include creatively tending all aspects of my life with equal attention.

The initial shift that occurred was and continues to be the most important event of my life. I am convinced that high art and the cutting edge of the creative human experience can only be accessed through a direct relationship to the source. The absence of any interface and outrageous trust in something unseen are required of this relationship. It is in our willingness to courageously turn and walk into those areas of consciousness where our identity as an ego may come undone that we have the potential to find our own true life. The personal and collective ego does everything in its power to resist this possibility. The ego interprets any radical departure from a personal or cultural fix as sure death to its existence – and it is entirely correct in this assessment Something old and calcified must die; yet, it is in this dying that we are able to bring forth the inspired life that is our birthright.

What was your inspiration to do such amazing and unique sculptures?
As I said earlier, the greatest gifts are often hidden in the life experiences that challenges or frighten us. It is clear to me now, that some essential template of understanding crystallized out of my exploration into this area of experience. It is this basic template that inspires and poetically informs any deeper meaning that one might find in my sculptures. I don’t feel the magic of inspiration is something I necessarily control in relation to my sculptures. Something inadvertently dropped into place with the original shift. It seems to have a life of its own; both in the art I create and as an expression in world. I see a complete mythos forming, which looks identical to the original template in the particular way my story is being perceived and in the kind of attention I am getting as an artist in the world.

I find it interesting that the sarcophagus-like sculptures I am creating and my story, as it has emerged in the world, translates the fullness of this experience. Some people stand before my coffin-like boxes and their initial experience is fear. Just yesterday a man visiting from St Louis was standing in the large studio that inhabits 13 of my sculptures and said, “You know -- if someone was not in a very good state of mind they might be a little frightened by your art ” Clearly, there are some people who see my sculptures as spooky and death-like. Paradoxically, they also dispense gifts; they are whimsical, playful and full of life. For those who can go beyond their initial fear and interact with the pieces, they have the potential to walk away joyful, inspired and bearing gifts. In a metaphorical sense, this is true for all of us when we are confronted with any experience that frightens us. We can either grow larger by opening fully to the experience or we can shrink back in avoidance, adding power to what will become a growing shadow of fear. I might add - meaning is a very illusive entity and I hope I have not gilded the lily with too intellectual an explanation of my art. This is the poetic understanding that came later.