A SECOND WIND:
Art Resurrected
By Jerry Wennstrom
Red linen hardcover with dustjacket, 284 pages, 12.5” x 9.5”
Foreword- Chris Bache | Intro- Laura Simms | Afterword- Brian Swimme
*Selected Stories*
Coming Soon - Revised Softcover Edition by Sentient Publications!
In 1995 we had the privilege of facilitating a group entitled, Thresholds with John O'Donohue and David Whyte. Having recently been offered a limited number of of John’s books, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom and Eternal Echoes, we would like to share John’s work with this free offer. With each purchase of, A Second Wind: Art Resurrected, we will send along one free copy of either, Anam Cara or Eternal Echoes.
FREE OFFER - Receive an Inspiring Book by John O’Donohue with each purchase of, A Second Wind: Art Resurrected
- Thomas Moore, author, Care of the Soul
A line-up in the gallery of some of Jerry Wennstrom’s exotic wooden sculptures, each about 7-feet tall. Many offer an exciting interactive experience.
Flipbook - Poet David Whyte’s “The Dark Has Eyes to Recognize its Own” (as it appears in “A Second Wind.”) David talks about Jerry Wennstrom’s creative courage and his willingness to step off into that “Sweet Darkness.”
A Second Wind
Afterword by Brian Thomas Swimme PhD
Jerry Wennstrom's greatest achievement is his discovery of a pathway into cosmological creativity. His life journey is unique, like every life journey, but there are elements in his transformation that have applicability not just for artists but for anyone devoted to living the creative life.
Our planet discovered its own pathway into creativity when it learned to transform the molten rock of Earth's early years into the magnificence of oceans and continents and a hundred million species of life. Including us. Every entity on Earth is a moving endpoint of this creativity. Jerry's achievement was to enable this primordial energy to become his core reality. He did this through a specific sequence of steps that I will get to in a moment. The point I want to make is that Jerry's journey is isomorphic with a fundamental dynamic of Earth's creativity. Let me first indicate what I mean by speaking of a fundamental dynamic of Earth's creativity, after which I'll indicate how Jerry's process was similar to Earth's own process.
We need to consider the pre-birth drama all mammals go through. Biologists in the 19th century discovered that in gestation, a mammal passes through the entire phylogenetic narrative. In the case of Homo sapiens, every human embryo takes on all the previous forms of life. I will use direct address in the hope of making this personal. Biologists discovered that you began as a single celled organism similar to the type that covered Earth four billion years ago; you then transformed into a multi-celled invertebrate organism similar to life six hundred million years ago; you then became a fish-like organism, then a lizard-like organism, then a mammalian organism, and finally a recognizable human being. When I say, "you became a lizard-like organism," I mean that your form was so similar to a lizard's form in its egg, that even experts in biology, when comparing the two, are not able to say which is lizard and which is human. In this bizarre sequence in the womb, you went through the entire history of life in nine or so months.
Why? Why would life go through this long sequence over and over again? Why not just build a human body without bothering to have it exist as an invertebrate for a time, and then as a fish for a time?
The amazing truth is that this is life's way of protecting its complex beauty. Life puts the new human being through a series of tests which are carried out by the mother's womb. As the embryo goes through all the forms of life, it has to be physiologically coherent with its mother's womb in order to survive. If this new form is too strange to fit into its mother's processes, it is aborted. Imagine the mother's womb as posing a series of questions to each form of its embryo: Are you coherent with my complex body, which has taken four billion years to evolve? If in the judgment of the womb, the answer is yes, then this new form of life is allowed to leave the womb and go forth in its wild adventure of creating, with others, the very fabric of the world.
Let's return now to Jerry and his journey. As a child, very early on, he practiced his art and was judged by other children and adults. Their judgment consisted in whether or not his art established a connection. It is so easy to snuff out enthusiasm in a child. But Jerry's art did connect and he found a way forward. With each year, the testing became more intense. University professors and established art critics of New York brought sensibilities to their judgments that had been crafted by decades of devotion not only to the contemporary art scene but to the entire history of art. To impress them was to have Art Herself bestow its approval.
And simultaneous with Jerry achieving their good judgments, his world suddenly became dust. All of it. At or around age 30, he became suffused with an undeniable urge to go beyond where he found himself. To go beyond via the strange act of subtraction. His whole world, including works of art he had long labored over, all of it felt like straw, like a false god. He wanted only to make it all disappear. Perhaps he saw in these works elements of seeking approval? Perhaps he saw in them echoes of art that had once been the spirit of their time but were now a dead-end? He wanted nothing to do with them. He wanted to return to zero.
I believe that Jerry discovered a pathway into a cosmological creativity which includes not only art but also literature and music and religion and history. It begins when one works tirelessly to master what has been learned and discovered by our ancestors. Life does not want to lose its greatest achievements. So one needs to root one's thinking and creating in these brilliant forms coming to us from the past. Once they are in place, life can begin to search for a higher level of complexity, a deeper realm of understanding, for a state of creativity that can be reached only by throwing away everything one has learned. Going to zero. Going to that place where the universe is born anew, instant after instant, out of a "luminous emptiness."
Let me end with a quotation from Jerry that captures it all: "One's creative journey offers the basic platform for the possibility of great accomplishment; however, we must be willing participants and have courage enough to break free from our personal and collective fix on what we believe art to be. This terrifying freedom from established form is where the deepest level of the journey must begin."
By David Whyte
Five of Wennstrom’s many sculptures from the interactive box series.
A Second Wind is a retrospective arrangement of beautiful new photographs of Jerry Wennstrom’s artwork, by Seattle architectural photographer, Andrew van Leeuwen, and earlier pictures spanning a period of over 50 years.
The book’s 248 pages include rescued images of his destroyed paintings; (in 1979) a creative act of liberation and the turning point of Wennstrom’s life where he gave himself to becoming and living the creation by giving away his possession, abandoning the life of a studio painter, and living a monk-like life for over a decade.
Representing Wennstrom’s “second wind” of art, the book also features colorful full-page spreads of the exotic, archetypal carved figures that came later. Wennstrom speaks to the new level of creative freedom by saying in the book; Art abandoned for the meaningful allurement of a higher calling ... and the return to art without compulsion, for no reason at all.
Included in the book are many stories — both art-related and transformational — written by the author along with “creative responses” by over 50 notables who have been impressed with Wennstrom’s works over decades.
Those responses include stories and creative expressions by and of cultural anthropologists Margaret Mead and Jean Houston; Jungian analysts and scholars Marion Woodman, Claire Dunne, and Corwin Fergus; psychologists/drug researchers Ralph Metzner and Christopher Bache; storytellers Laura Simms and Vi Hilbert; poet David Whyte, cosmologist Brian Swimme, artist Deborah Koff-Chapin and visionary financiers Charlie Hess and Vici Robin; the Dalai Lama’s Gyuto monks, and even legendary chanteuse Lotte Lenya (of The Threepenny Opera fame and From Russia With Love movie fame.
2 collages by Coel Cable: early paintings and the second wind, sculptures.
Experience an 11-minute multimedia “video fly-over” of the complete book, A Second Wind: Art Resurrected
Vicky Robin - author, Your Money or Your Life
Amazon Reviews:
A Colossal Literary Mixed Media Work
This is a colossal literary/mixed media work, the capstone of the life and work of a creative artist and spiritual pilgrim that is without parallel. I am not aware of any coffee table book with such a lush. combination of original art, photography, poetry, epiphanies, stories, cameo endorsements, and memoir. This beautifully printed book is also a communal work, a tribute and labor of love from Wennstrom‘s incredibly talented circle of friends many of whom are outstanding in their own fields of endeavor.
After his paintings achieved artistic acclaim and financial success in NYC’s art world, in 1979 Jerry’s Inner Muse urged him to begin his life over again. Abandoning his remaining paintings and leaving his studio behind, Jerry embarked on a a daily spiritual odyssey that years later landed him on Whidbey Island, a New Age enclave, where he was to meet his future wife and Outer Muse, Marilyn Strong. It was in this new realm that Jerry’s creative genius again took root and blossomed. No longer painting, his new endeavor would be creating incredible archetypal carved statues and mystical interactive structures, serendipitously assembled from recovered bits and pieces. Hence, this Second Wind and Resurrection.
The gorgeous photos of Jerry’s artwork was done by acclaimed photographer, Andrew van Leeuwen, and the clever and intricate design work by Carol Wright. This 248 page full color book is a treasure to have and hold, and at such a remarkably fair price makes it a worthy gift for one’s friends.
-Joe Kulin, Former Publisher, Parabola Magazine
Jerry’s Story Found Me When I needed it Most
In his late twenties, Jerry Wennstrom was an accomplished artist regularly exhibiting his work in New York City. A quick search in The Newspaper Archive database yields dozens of articles discussing both his art and personal life. But even as he was building his career as an artist, he began to sense that something was off. The excessive of public interest in artists and the art scene and his single-focused identity as an artist were beginning to feel superficial.
Following a period of fasting and reflection, Jerry made the decision to destroy his art, give away his possessions and money, and depend on the spirit of creativity itself to carry his life. His first book, The Inspired Heart, chronicles this fifteen-year journey.
In his new book, A Second Wind: Art Resurrected, with gorgeous photography by Andrew van Leeuwen, Jerry tells readers the rest of the story. He begins by documenting his early life as a painter, his journey into the "accessible void" and some of the most poignant moments within that void, and his reemergence and return to art on Whidbey Island off the coast of Seattle, Washington.
To quote Jerry, “This book is my celebratory endgame."
Indeed, it is a chronicling of an unusual journey from start to finish -- beautifully expressed in art and prose -- and includes dozens of written and creative testimonials by writers, artists, musicians, and actors whose lives Jerry has influenced.
In this new book, Jerry gives equal reverence to the light and dark moments in his life. Of the two roads that diverge in a wood, the one less traveled takes us to a place of renewal. Suffering is necessary. I used to think that the two roads in Robert Frost's poem took us to the same place, but no! The road less traveled is the narrow road, and that's the road that Jerry took.
Jerry's story found me when I needed it most, and my hope is that his story will reach a new audience through the release of this book. My hope is that those of us who believe we might not relate to Jerry’s archetypal story will find inspiration in it nonetheless and come to see that we are never lost.
Dominique McCafferty Snapp -- Collection Development Librarian for Library Systems and Services and Associate Librarian at Mount San Jacinto College.
Creativity that Delights and Inspires
Through Jerry’s eyes and imagination, objects people would normally think of as mundane “things” become magical creations that delight with whimsy as well as probe the dark mysteries of life and death. Not only is his imagination out-of-this-world, it is balanced by his level of craftsmanship, which is impeccable.
—One Who Reads
Remarkable
Having been the co-owner and the buyer of art books for an independent bookstore for 35 years, I’m very familiar with the main varieties of art books: books that are biographies, or books primarily devoted to images of the art, or books that are a combination of the two.
Jerry Wennstrom’s book, A Second Wind: Art Resurrected, is remarkable because it’s an entirely new form. Not only does it have the requisite biographical material and truly magnificent pictures of the art, created over an extensive and still vibrant career, it’s also full of the unexpected—deep personal reminiscences, philosophical and psychological commentary, poetry and other artistic responses to the art, dance just being one of these.
The book also goes into detail about how it was created, a behind the scenes account that is rare in publishing. And all of these significant parts of the book only touch on all that it contains. I have been lucky in the last 20 years to have seen the art first hand. The book captures it all in gorgeous full color. It’s a majestically beautiful book full of wonders.
From -- Barry Leibman, Co-owner & founder Left Bank Book, St Louis, MO
Astounding!
Astounding! The ferocity of Jerry's truth and brilliance... and the terrifying beauty and complexity of living fully exposed between the worlds of death and life that his work so fully carries... places him - although at near invisibility (not for long) among the finest and most inspired creators/excavators of the human condition I have ever encountered.
A singular artist and revolutionary thinker who has tunneled into the depth of his own journey to discover that which has been hidden from the rest of us and gifted it to us with this amazing book. - Richard Berger, (Giant Crystals)
Timely and Important
A Second Wind: Art Resurrected is a source of inspiration offering the wide reaching journey of one artist who over time has built a community of revelation and heart around him as witnessed in this recent gathering of his work in this gorgeous book. The content of the book brings many voices together. Others share their insight into the living creative process of a contemporary artist of our time and the impact on their lives.
A living legend Jerry Wennstrom offers us beauty, humor, and mystery in the mastery of light and dark conveyed in form and feeling. Richly laid out images and words should not be missed at a time when we need them the most. A rare find,original in the truest sense, and prolific leaves no one disappointed in owning this book for years to come to enjoy and savor.
— Nanda Currant, Artist, filmmaker
Shatters Norms
Jerry is a true original. His magnificent art shatters norms, defies conventions, and is just so much fun to play with. “A Second Wind” is a treasure, both for its beautiful photographs and its rich narrative. Jerry concentrates so much creativity into every square inch of his work that the photographs allow us to linger and catch details that we would otherwise miss. And the narrative takes us into Jerry’s life and the creative process that constantly percolates inside him. This book is a joy that I will digest slowly and with great delight.
-EmeritusProf
Engaging, Jaw-dropping
Jerry Wennstrom and his creative collaborators have assembled a most impressive Art Book. At this early stage, my review will have to be a FIRST IMPRESSIONS only, because the content, texts and images therein are so rich, deep and engaging it will take some time to fully absorb and appreciate this amazing book.
I have no doubt that A SECOND WIND: ART RESURRECTED will give me and all of its readers hours and hours of enjoyable experiences and connections. Jerry's art is simply jaw-dropping, unlike anything the art world typically sees. One page will lead you to the next... and the next. Poetry, pictures, people, recollections, materials, inspirations.... — Sharen D. Heath
A Colossal Iconography
A second Wind … that title is a significant understatement. For Jerry Wennstrom this has been a second life – one he more or less chose for himself by literally trashing the entire body of work for which he was already well known and celebrated as a promising young artist.
So it was that his journey into maturity began with great loss … and a great act of personal will. The full story is in this compelling and voluptuously illustrated volume.
Jerry’s art is unlike other art, and this book is not like any other either. Jerry Wennstrom is a trip. His life has been a long trip, his art is a trip, each of his works is a trip. Each of these reviews of this book tells the journey of another friend who went somewhere on their own trip into Jerry’s world of creation.
You go on this trip into Jerry's world and you find yourself on a journey straight to where your doors of perception live inside of you. There you are, right here … somewhere that feels and seems somewhere you have never been before, but … here you are, and now ... in Jerry’s world.
This man, this being named Jerry Wennstrom is every bit as unique and uniquely gifted as any other historically great artist – informed by the presence of a colossal iconography that lives in the conscious and unconscious vocabulary that expresses in his art. You are likely to find yourself drawn irresistibly into Jerry's utterly unique journey. Take a deep breath!
Drew Kampion, author Stoked: A History of Surf Culture
Glimpses Into the Artist’s Life
There's so much to learn from this book, whether it's glimpses into the artist's life and works, exploration of our own creativity, or digging into the depths of our beliefs about who we are and what we're capable of achieving and becoming. It's inspiring and challenging, which are my two favorite qualities in any book. It's also a physically beautiful hardcover book to hold in one's hands and soak in the amazing photo's of Jerry's work. Jerry's insights into the ultimate source of art is profound, as evidenced in one of my favorite quotes from the book: "It has been clear to me since day-one that the ultimate creative moment in my life was not the creation of anything physical, but the quantum leap into the void...." Lastly, to top it off, there's a page devoted to photos of Jerry and Marilyn's cats!
-Tailor Made
A Mystifying Experience
This book is a fascinating and mystifying experience of the amazing artwork of Jerry Wennstrom. Jerry's completely original and totally inspiring use of little and big "lost and discarded" objects are elevated to spiritual heights as they are incorporated into his emotion evoking entities. I'm dumbfounded and excited to see how alive and interesting and creative and precious his mind must be to produce such wonderful, wonderous, enigmatic, profound, mundane, delightful, dark and disturbingly thoughtful work. And what an interesting life he has lived. Its unfolded so brilliantly in this book. It just must be experienced. Kudos to the editor who managed to corral and present his prolific life's work in such an accessible and enjoyable format. Absolutely astonishing and beautiful! -Ciali
Always With the Hair: Always Worth the Effort eh!
never met the man.
but he sure seems to be quite a character.
bet he's handy with a Harley,
Triumphantly so.
bet he's helped by Our Dear Dark Ollie,
bet he's a heck of a great friend,
bet he's a heck of a gardener,
bet he's a heck of a chef.
But really,
but truly,
I sure do know for a fact,
he sure do know how to make an entrance.
Real Steamy with just the right height of Fire!!
Love ya J! - Effie B
What people are saying:
Inspiring and Exciting
I have just read Jerry Wennstrom’s amazing, illustrated book of his artistic journey. As a well-known artist in New York, Jerry felt alienated from his own creations because of many factors, including commercialization. He destroyed all his art, gave everything away, and undertook a spiritual journey of 15 years which led to the rebirth of the authentic, creative art that this book depicts: “A Second Wind: Art Resurrected.”
The book is a village, also including images, essays, poems, and stories of those touched by Jerry’s journey and his art. The ordinary is transformed into the miraculous, as Joe Kulin says the book, in Jerry’s powerful depictions of the repressed and transcendent Feminine. I can't say enough positive about this book — I love how it's a collection of voices and genres. It’s wise to take seriously the invitation to interact with all facets of the book, with the images, poems and richness of it, and let it move you deeply. The well-known poet David Whyte’s idea of the 'sweet darkness' that Jerry entered on his own artistic path gives hope to others who get stuck in that darkness of creative paralysis!
By daring to enter the unknown, Jerry describes how a transformation and flowering of creativity can occur. This book is a village, clustered around a mystic. I highly recommend it. — Dana Jack Crowley, author, Silencing the Self: Woman and Depression
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Wonderful Beyond Measure
The Second Wind by Jerry Wennstrom is wonderful beyond measure. The sculptures and murals and other creations are unlike any other. Jerry's background is interesting and has lead to his purpose of artistic storytelling. He has found the space between the existential and mystical. He pursues his search to go beyond the superficial. His masterful pieces can be deep and amusing and playful..
-Pam Schell -- (Wife of former Seattle mayor Paul Schell)
No Ordinary Coffee Table Book
A Second Wind: Art Resurrected is no ordinary coffee table book that one might glance through and put back down. This book of art is so unique it is far in the future and demands that you get involved yourself and insists on a response that is often deep and even unconscious. Jerry’s art is both dark and light it captures all of life, sometimes with levity sometimes with uncompromising truth that for some is hard to embrace. Not only is the book full of Jerry’s masterful pieces of art but stories that bring one closer to what art is all about and how important it is that we listen to our artists, poets and even dreamers.
Throughout the book the reader gets to know Jerry’s extraordinary journey so that by the end you feel you know a man who has done his inner work, who has renounced what does not serve humanity and has kept a steady course navigating his own integrity which can be lonely and at the same time produce breathtaking art.
The book is jammed packed with stories that are far from superficial, they only serve to deepen the readers experience so that while reading this book you question your own life, your own values and even ask the question why am I here? Jerry dives deeply into the source of existence, those often-difficult places we find ourselves and always, there is art to heighten the experience and force the reader to look directly at what makes us human.
With humor and levity, he has us look at death and our fear of death. Looking through this book is like having your own life changing dream. When you turn the last page, you resolve to be more human, more fearless, more compassionate and with the knowledge that every one of us lives on the edge of vast experiences.
One of a Kind
Jerry’s book, “A Second Wind, Art Resurrected” is one of the most beautiful and meaningful books I have ever encountered. Jerry’s multimedia art contains unmistakable echoes of past totems and prayers expressed seamlessly to a modern world. I can hear the chants and smell the incense.
In our world of things we need this remembrance and Jerry’s art is that memory. So go, tell it on the mountain. Archetypes of air, earth, water and fire are living beings in transition from mythic to present. Jerry’s art resurrects, as if in a dream, drums from Africa echoing through termite mounds to the savanna of a loving way.
Author, poet - Lawrence Weiss
“I can't say enough positive about this book — I love how it's a collection of voices and genres.
“It’s wise to take seriously the invitation to interact with all facets of the book, with the images, poems and richness of it, and let it move you deeply.”
— Dana Jack Crowley, author, Silencing the Self: Woman and Depression
“I have been lucky in the last 20 years to have seen the art first-hand. The book captures it all in gorgeous full color. It’s a majestically beautiful book full of wonders.”
— Barry Leibman, Left Bank Books, St. Louis, Missouri
“Jerry's art is simply jaw-dropping, unlike anything the art world typically sees. One page will lead you to the next... and the next. Poetry, pictures, people, recollections, materials, inspirations.”
— Sharen Heath, Whidbey Island, Washington