Paulus Berensohn 1933-2017

The fully creative life of Paulus Berensohn, artist, dancer, potter, teacher, journal maker, philosopher, and deep ecologist is being celebrated by the many people whose lives he touched. His 1970s book, "Finding One's Way with Clay", is where many came to know him and his philosophy of ceramics. A 2013 documentary, "To Spring from the Hand: The Life and Work of Paulus Berensohn", tells the story of a long life of compassionate, creative contemplation. How lucky we are that he has so generously shared himself with us.

Born in 1933 in New York City, Paul was the dyslexic younger brother to a musical child prodigy, Lorin Bernsohn, who went on to play cello in the New York Philharmonic. As a little boy, Paulus was attracted to dance, much to his mother's discomfort. He went to five colleges, finally dancing at the last two, the Juilliard School in NYC and Bennington College in Vermont. When he left Bennington without a degree he returned to NYC and went on to study and dance with Merce Cunningham and Martha Graham.

In the early 1950s during a visit to the Gate Hill Community, an artist collective in Stony Point, NY, Paulus experienced a moment that changed the course of his life forever. While exploring the grounds, he happened upon potter Karen Karnes in her studio. As he watched from the window, Karen threw a pot, lengthening her spine as the cylinder rose, she reached for the sponge in her slop bucket without taking her eyes from the pot on the wheel. He thought to himself, "That's a dance to learn."

And learn he did! He studied with Karen's studio mate, M.C. Richards at Greenwich House Pottery in NYC and followed her to Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine for a summer. This was the beginning of a lifelong relationship filled with poetry, pottery, and philosophy. They were the founding spirits of the Endless Mountain Farm, a collectively owned artist colony in Pennsylvania. Like M.C., Paulus pursued a life of teaching and connecting creativity to the human experience. An opportunity to build a wood fire kiln with Cynthia Bringle lead Paulus to a forty-year career teaching at the Penland School of Craft in North Carolina. He taught pottery, poetry, weaving, and journal making at Penland, in local schools, and in workshops all over the world.

Paulus Berensohn spent his life dancing with clay, the environment and living his philosophy of what being an artist actually means. He believed in art as a non-commercial enterprise that fosters human development and unlocks human potential. In the past 40 years, he hasn't sold any of his work, preferring to give it away or to return it to the earth. He lived simply and gently with great compassion and honesty, beloved by all who had the pleasure of his company whether in person or through his writings and film.

Click here to view an excellent youtube video interview with Paulus via Fetzer Institute