“Individual creative expression is our birthright. It emerges slowly through a one-on-one relationship with our own deepest mystery to further the consciousness of our world.”
— JERRY WENNSTROM
JERRY WENNSTROM
Artist, Author - Full Press Kit
The Art of Surrender: A Universal Journey Through the Life of Jerry Wennstrom
Jerry Wennstrom’s life unfolds as a living parable for modern times — a mythic journey through the dissolution of form and the awakening of essence. It is a story that transcends biography and touches the archetypal rhythm within every human being: the call to let go, the passage through unknowing, and the emergence of a life aligned with the whole.
In his early years as a New York artist, Jerry embodied the archetype of the creator in full stride — a man surrounded by his own dazzling constructions of form, vision, and ambition. Then, in an act that defied logic and expectation, he destroyed all of his artwork. The gesture was not one of despair, but of obedience to a deeper intelligence — a surrender to the Mystery that had been quietly guiding his hand all along.
That destruction marked the beginning of a spiritual initiation — a dying before death. It was the artist’s answer to an ancient summons: to relinquish the known, to dissolve the boundary between the maker and what is made. In that act, he entered the vast interior space where creation begins anew — not as personal expression, but as participation in a living cosmos.
For years he lived in radical simplicity, sustained by trust rather than by plan, by grace rather than by possession. In this season of unmaking, the world itself became his studio. Every encounter, every breath, was an act of co-creation. His life had taken up the brush and was painting through him.
Such a way of living reveals something universal: that the deepest art is not the work produced by the hand, but the soul’s willingness to be shaped by the hand of the divine. True creativity, in this light, is not the assertion of will but the surrender of it — a dialogue between the human and the eternal.
Out of this long silence, new works began to appear — kinetic sculptures alive with humor, wisdom, and mystery. They invite participation rather than observation, reminding us that art — like life — is never complete until we ourselves enter the dance.
Through his partnership with Marilyn Strong, Jerry’s vision found an earthly anchor — the union of spirit and form, contemplation and community. Their shared work speaks to the alchemy of relationship, where love itself becomes the crucible of transformation.
The essence of Jerry Wennstrom’s life is not that he left the world of art behind, but that he discovered its true dimension. Art, for him, is not a product but a path — a way of aligning with the creative intelligence that animates all things. His life stands as a quiet yet radical testimony: that when we relinquish what we think we are, life rushes in to reveal what we have always been.
The art of surrender is not a retreat from life. It is a deeper participation in it — a willingness to be lived by something larger, something whole. To those who listen deeply, Jerry’s story is not merely an artist’s tale but an invitation:
to trust the unmaking, to allow the silence, and to discover that what remains is infinitely alive.
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The Ecstatic Yes!
In the midst of his Saturn Return, age 29, Jerry destroyed all his art. A radical severance of this sort is an inescapable feature of the journey of soul initiation: We must die to everything we first thought we were and would be, everything we thought the world was—sometimes by abduction, sometimes by way of a horrifying and ecstatic YES spilling out of our astonished mouths. Tragically, very few contemporary people experience this kind of metamorphosis. Nothing in conformist-consumer society supports it, even though the blossoming and evolution of human life depends on it. But Jerry did. He found the golden thread that enabled him to change our world through his mysterious and enchanted creations.
– Bill Plotkin, PhD - author, Soulcraft & The Journey of Soul Initiation
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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.
Brian Thomas Swimme - PhD
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One of the magnificent things about Jerry is his profound and courageous innocence. He has created a friendship with a part of himself which is in love with the world, and his art displays that. Jerry is one of the few people I know who, in a very quiet way, has actually claimed his happiness in existence. - David Whyte - Author, poet www.davidwhyte.com
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Jerry’s insights show all the traces of the world’s ancient wisdom, though he uses his own hand-crafted images and words. In an illustrated version of the Sufi tale “Mojud: The Man with the Inexplicable Life,” Mojud starts out as an inspector of weights and measures but then receives several visits from the spirit guide Khidr. Each time his life settles, the spirit appears with a new adventure. Everyone thinks Mojud is mad, but with a sacred simplemindedness he empties his will and follows directions. Finally, the story says, “Clerics, philosophers and others visited him and asked, ‘Under whom did you study?’ ‘It is difficult to say,’ said Mojud.” I think Khidr must have visited Jerry Wennstrom a few times, too.
- Thomas Moore, author, Care of the Soul
A slide lecture - Pacifica Graduate Institute’s, Depth Psychology Dept., Santa Barbara, CA.
TAT Foundation Interviews Jerry
See more videos of artwork and lectures on Jerry Wennstrom’s YouTube Channel.
Jerry Wennstrom has presented at the Birmingham Art Museum, the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture, Kauai Museum, Chazen Art Museum, Institute of Noetic Sciences , UCS-NAROPA, Bastyr University, Western New Mexico University, California Institute of the Arts, Vancouver Public Library, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Interfaith Center of New York, N.Y.U, The New York Open Center, C.G. Jung Societies of Seattle and Vancouver, and the Pacifica Graduate Institute.
<— Video, Jerry’s Pacifica Slide lecture.
He has also done over 50 radio, TV, and magazine interviews.