Would You Give Up Arms For Wings? A story inspired by the visionary life & writings of Paulus Berensohn was a finalist for the AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs) Sue William Silverman Prize forCreative Nonfiction.

 

The project received generous support and two grants from the Canada Council for the Arts.

 

Booker Prize nominee Alison Pick was my writing mentor for the project.

 

Working with the narrative device of a frame story this book within a book is also about the creation of a book.

 

The story opens with the narrator struggling to learn the Coptic stitch.The book at its core is about overcoming creative fear and how the craft of Bargello tapestry, friendship, love and Nature restored the lifeof Paulus. My book is based upon Berensohn's unpublished memoir, The Silver Sword. The text recounts the years when Paulus thought he was dying from cancer.

 

In 1974 Paulus drove to San Diego from Pennsylvania in search of healing. It worked. Berensohn died in 2017 at the age of 84. The New York Times obituary described Paulus as a dancer, potter, teacher, and environmentalist. I’ve never met Paulus anywhere but inmy imagination.

 

A variety of opinions and opportunities for publication have been considered however the path I must take is to bring the book to life is a limited edition handmade Coptic stitch art book.

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I intend for 85 copies.

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What’s come to be of exceptional interest is that while I have sought to understand Paulus; his source ideologies and the man himself, I have found him to be an intuitive force and source of wisdom connected to an investigation into living the life of a deep ecologist. Beyond the inquiry into the creative and visionary practice of Berensohn I wrote this book to understand the forces that swept away those fledgling years that inspired Earth Day, recycling and alternative energy.

 

I hope my book in the world in this handmade form will foster another counter-cultural revolution that will preserve the purpose of the handmade as a human birthright, elevate the exercise of the imagination for all, and foster the courage to find one's own way in spite of technologies that offer the easy way. I'd like this book to be a voice for renewable energy of the Spirit so we carry on seeking the wisdom of Nature's children for their handmade future.

 

This book embellished by the art of Paulus, original art commissioned for the cover by South African artist Jo McLaughlin, the cover and book design by Kansas City graphic designer, Melissa Dehner, letterpress inserts by Bob Atkins of Skylab Letterpress, a Foreword by Ross Schartel, copy edits by Tom Yeshe, and the Coptic stitching by Kansas City book artist Jessica Devon McLanahan will become art to hold with words for the heart.

 

Paulus liked to say, “Can you hear the ear in fear, and bear it; see the art in heart and take part in it? Sensing the ear and art in union, together in the heart.”

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I will say, "Please join me in celebrating this talented group of people who will bring my vision into this reality."

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Furthermore, Paulus recounts in the documentary about his life "To Spring From the Hand" that for twenty years every pot he made was buried back into the Earth from which it was made. Paulus resisted being turned into a commodity. He almost died once from the exhaustion of performative expectations of art careerism. He would not be so vulnerable and manipulated again.

 

He made art to make his life.

 

In honor of this I do not intend to sell these books. 60 of them will be released as a pure gift to the teachers, mentors, art and writing friends, students and guides who made all the difference to my life because of theirs. I will encourage them to pass the book forward as their gift.

 

15 books will be offered to the lineage of institutions affiliated with Paulus such as the Penland School for Art and Craft, Yale University, Goddard College, Swarthmore College, the Martha Graham School, Juilliard, NCECA's Josh Green, AMOCA, the Ceramics Research Centre and the Everson Museum.

 

5 more will go out to close friends of Paulus who were never surprised by my wish to write this book and who helped me along the way and to 5 to people I have yet to meet.

 

In time a commercial paperback made with glue and inkjet can be made available, however this handmade form must come first.

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To finance the production I've been teaching ceramics, grant writing and writing for the Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity & Craftsmanship as a Contributor to the Home Faber Guide.​

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Tupelo Press, an acclaimed independent press writes, "Would You Give Up Arms for Wings? is a fascinating, often luminous work that deftly intertwines genres and perspectives, lyricism with research, and offers much to think with in terms of how we create."

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​I've only met Paulus in my imagination. If I'd met Paulus in real life, at a much earlier age, I would have had a different creative life bound less by expectation, comparison and professional grasping, and bound more to the pure inspiration of creative practice.

 

I want that for the people who receive this book. 

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