Today, I Grieve 5:16 PM

Dallas LOVE Project Venue: Dallas Public Library 1:00 PM

During the entire month of November we will be highlighting Dallas LOVE Project venues.  Featured in this blog is the Dallas Public Central Library located at 1515 Young Street, Dallas 75201. 

One of the largest exhibits of Dallas LOVE art in the city, the library is open Tuesday through Sunday.  Click here for Central Library hours.

Upload your Instagram photos and don't forget to tag us: 

#DLoveProject #29pieces #dallaslovequilt

They've got the ArtLoveMagic 5:11 PM

Karen Blessen on ArtLoveMagic Radio with Michael Lagocki and Deborah Driscoll

Our friends Michael Lagocki and Deborah Driscoll have been terrific . . .  they had me on ArtLoveMagic Radio and then also gave 29 Pieces and my work a shout out in one of their artlovemagic online publications. Our gratitudes!

— Karen Blessen

www.29Pieces.org

Principles of Flight 1.01 11:57 AM

Air Dynamics 1.01

There are, basically, four forces of flight: lift, drag, thrust and weight.

1. Forward speed is necessary to fly.

2. For an object to fly, it must always engage in a tug of war between the opposing forces of lift versus weight and thrust versus drag.

3. Lift force points upward, opposite to the weight.

4. Thrust pushes the object forward, as drag slows it down.

5. The lift force must be greater than the weight and the thrust more powerful than the drag for the plane to fly.

6. If the thrust is powerful enough it will overcome weight and drag and the plane will fly.

7. Drag works against thrust to slow an aircraft.

8. The difference in speed between object and horizontally moving air increases as object increases speed.

9. If object is flat, it is pushed back. If object has speed and lift, it will fly.

10. Too much lift may cause aeronautical stall.

11. During take off and landing, it is necessary for a plane to fly as slowly as possible.

www.29Pieces.org

www.29Pieces.blogspot.com

29 Pieces in Dallas Morning News 2:44 PM

Karen Blessen in 29 Pieces studio
 Photo by Kye R. Lee, Staff Photographer, The Dallas Morning News

The Path to Peace

For Karen Blessen,
it's where creativity and spirituality converge


By ERIN BOOKE, Staff Writer, The Dallas Morning News, ebooke@dallasnews.com

Published, The Dallas Morning News, 05 March 2011

For Karen Blessen, creativity and spirituality must coexist.

About 11 years ago, the local artist and illustrator witnessed a murder in front of her home that changed her creative and spiritual paths. She began a meditation practice in order to bring them together.

“I asked myself, am I where I want to be?” Blessen says. “Meaning spiritually, not even careerwise or financially. And the answer was no.”

Her meditation involves memorizing passages from major faith traditions — Christian, Buddhist, American Indian — and creating a response.

“Let me walk in beauty.”

“If the very world should stop.”

“Dying of love is what I hope for.”

Repeating these sacred phrases led to an “outrageous burst of creative spirit,” Blessen says. During a five-month period in 2006 she created mixed-media, small-scale models to represent each passage. She envisions the project, called 29 Pieces, as a collection of enormous sculptures where others can gather and seek spiritual inspiration.

“It was a very compelling conviction,” she says. “It encapsulates everything I have in me, and in a way, it’s way bigger than me. Because what’s being expressed is a universal longing.”

For now, the pieces can be seen at Blessen’s studio in Deep Ellum. The clean, cool, spare gallery space creates a serene atmosphere that lets visitors focus on the message and forget the world around them.

“This space is a sanctuary for this work,” Blessen says. “It has a quietness to it that allows people to listen to the creative message that we don’t hear when we have a lot of cacophony around us.”

The collection of 29 models lines one wall, while images of what the large installations would look like line another.

Blessen comes to this space to write, think and envision. “I wanted it to be a white, restrained and simple space that wouldn’t stir up my mind or agitate me. A sacred, quiet space.”

When Blessen sits down to create, be it her personal work or illustrations for clients, she requires some privacy and a quiet room of her own. At her M Streets home, Blessen’s workspace is a loft studio in her woodsy backyard.

“I find it impossible to work in my own home,” she says. “I need a separation of some kind, a ritualistic separation from the day-to-day. In the home it’s too tempting to do laundry.”

To get to her backyard studio, Blessen begins the separation by walking 100 feet down a rocky path and up a turquoise spiral staircase.

The studio, designed by Phillips-Ryburn Associates and inspired by the Mexico home of artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, is filled with color and more visual stimulation than her spiritual space in Deep Ellum.

The industrial windows allow the sights and sounds of nature to encapsulate Blessen as she works. “I’m definitely a light addict,” she says.

Yes, KB's desk is ALWAYS this tidy.
Photo by Kye R. Lee, Staff Photographer, The Dallas Morning News

She surrounds herself with past works of art, personal photos, folk art pieces made by her husband, and mementos that remind her of travels, family members and other artists who’ve inspired her.

“I do have the presence of people who were instrumental to me,” she says.

Her dad was a carpenter and built a collapsible ruler that Blessen keeps on a nearby shelf. “It always impressed me that he could make things,” she says. Her mother also is a big presence. There’s a large poster of an illustration that Blessen designed for a Mother’s Day piece she wrote.

“My mom really inspired me with her kindness,” she says. “In some ways she was my spiritual teacher … in a church lady kind of way. I learned about how to treat people. To be kind to people and each other. She guided me more than anybody else.”

Blessen now guides others in their artistic and spiritual quests. Local spoken-word artist and creative-writing teacher Will Richey asked Blessen to mentor him, and he eventually came to use her Deep Ellum studio as his own space to create. He’s not just inspired by the space, but by Blessen’s presence.

“It’s a place where I can get away and get some peace,” he says. “It also embodies who she is — a beautiful, unconditional person. The studio is synonymous with the spirit of Karen.”

Richey is used to writing and working in busier, louder places, and even listens to music on headphones in order to block out the world. So Blessen’s space is a nice retreat.

“While I’ve learned to write and communicate in the midst of the world we live in,” he says, “there’s something about going to such a peaceful place.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION

To learn more about Karen Blessen’s 29 Pieces art project, visit 29Pieces.org.

KB in front of the backyard studio
Photo by Kye R. Lee, Staff Photographer, The Dallas Morning News

when self has ceased to be. 2:14 PM

Number 16: I want to hide myself in you (If you and I melt together)

Starting December 27, 2010, I chose the following passage to “unpack” — line by line — as a daily practice to take me into the New Year.

And what is the “unpacking” process? It involves deep concentration on one line at a time, and then writing my response to that line – first with my dominant hand, and then with my non-dominant hand. There are plenty of references on the web to the process of dominant and non-dominant hand-writing. If you haven’t tried it, you may want to. I venture a guess that you will surprise yourself.

I’ll be interested to see what this passage has hidden for me.

Cast Aside What Limits You

— By Dov Baer of Mezherich

The human body is finite;

         the spirit is boundless.

Before you begin to pray,

         cast aside what limits you

         and enter into the world of the Infinite.

Turn to God alone

         and have no thoughts of self at all.

Nothing but God exists for you

         when self has ceased to be.

Dov Baer (d. 1772) was the chief disciple and successor of Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer, the Baal Shem Tov or “Master of the Good Name,” founder of the Hasidic movement of Jewish mysticism, which places devotional prayer at the center of the spiritual life.

Right Hand:

“when self has ceased to be . . .“

(Written on January 8, 2011)

. . . every shadow on the floor, every reflection off the hood of a car will induce humility.

That’s God below me and God blinding me.

A sharp word from another’s mouth will make me pause with compassion and understand that I just may not understand.

I’ll really get it that it’s not all up to me, and that even that thought is loaded with arrogance.

The compulsions that mystify me will fizzle out.

Every waking moment will be in awe of the wonder world that surrounds me like the ocean.

The sustenance and protection of the Self I see in others will be One + the same with the living force in me.

King, Queen, or custodian, it will all be the same to me.

So much of how I’ve spent my energies will look ridiculous to me.

I’ll see – it doesn’t matter what I do, as long as what I do is kind. Corinthian, Kipling, the Gita – this is the bottom line.

Left hand:

“when self has ceased to be.“

. . . I’m so ready.

I say this, but think now, are you really ready to move forward with hope, love, insight, and disengage from the outcome? With 29 Pieces, you didn’t manufacture it. It is quite possibly not your responsibility or quarter to make the call on exactly what it’s going to be.

A stationary place.

An energy.

A traveling show in someone else’s tent.

A traveling show in it’s own tent.

They may not want to travel.

A destination or a tourist?

All in one place.

When self has ceased to be, I can relax + just ride the waves.

— Karen Blessen

www.29Pieces.org

www.29Pieces.blogspot.com

www.29Pieces.tumblr.com

Cast Aside What Limits You 4:56 PM

Linda Gregerson: Poetry of the Fragile Body

Cast Aside What Limits You

— By Dov Baer of Mezherich

The human body is finite;

                  the spirit is boundless.

Before you begin to pray,

                  cast aside what limits you

                  and enter into the world of the Infinite.

Turn to God alone

                  and have no thoughts of self at all.

Nothing but God exists for you

                  when self has ceased to be.

Dov Baer (d. 1772) was the chief disciple and successor of Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer, the Baal Shem Tov or “Master of the Good Name,” founder of the Hasidic movement of Jewish mysticism, which places devotional prayer at the center of the spiritual life.

I’ve chosen this passage to “unpack” —  line by line — as a daily practice to take me into the New Year.

And what is the “unpacking” process? It involves deep concentration on one line at a time, and then writing my response to that line – first with my dominant hand, and then with my non-dominant hand. There are plenty of references on the web to the process of dominant and non-dominant hand writing. If you haven’t tried it, you may want to. I venture a guess that you will surprise yourself.

I’ll be interested to see what this passage has hidden for me.

Line 1:

“The human body is finite”

Right hand (dominant):

Car crashes, cancer, broken bones, aging, infections, viruses, defective parts, exhaustion . . .  no chemistry, no exercise, no beauty cream, no positive attitude will win this battle in the end. Finito. This shell we step into has an expiration date stamped on the back, and no strategy, plea or negotiation will keep it animate beyond its time.

That being said, we sense that there is something more, something more to US. In our spirit, our mind, there’s a fleeting awareness of that which lasts.

So which part of our life experience gets the lion’s share of our attention? The finite or that intuited energy that persists?

“The human body is finite”

Left hand (non-dominant):

Isn’t it interesting? How this infinite energy + spirit at the core is housed in such a delicate + unforgiving marvel of a body? Sheathed in feathers, scales, bark or skin, and given families, schools, gaggles and forests to commune in. It’s our infinite education. The body may be finite, but the school term is not.

— Karen Blessen

www.29Pieces.org

www.29Pieces.blogspot.com

www.29Pieces.tumblr.com

Why? 12:26 PM

Number 17. Enter into the joy. Overflowing records and unruly spirits.

Question: Discuss more why you believe in this project.

When I began the passage meditation process, and was exposed to the sacred writings from many cultures, they opened up a portal to a creative, profound journey for me. And they showed me a new window into the meaning and wisdom that I was searching for in life. My belief in the 29 Pieces project is a compelling conviction that the longing for meaning, healing and wisdom that I experienced is not unique. It is shared by many, many people of every socio-economic background, of every color, and of every belief.  The 29 Pieces art, the workshops, the online presence, the performances, and the film will all be tools to manifest wisdom and beauty into a tangible, new artistic form. And I feel that people are hungering for this, just as I was.

Question: How will this transform people’s lives?

The art of 29 Pieces, as well as the workshops and the online presence are all instruments of a process, a way to form a relationship with people . . . a deeper relationship that is beyond the usual daily interactions. The wisdom of the sacred writings manifests in a new way – as large-scale art. In life today, we often feel overwhelmed by the bombardment and sheer weight of frustrations and bad news. We are longing for something else, and may not even know what it is. The scale of the art in 29 Pieces commands attention and envelops the viewer in the experience of art and sacred wisdom. 29 Pieces will encourage people to enter deeper levels of consciousness - away from the agitations of daily life. A whole new perspective on life is opened up. The 29 Pieces workshops, online presence, and performances will all be parts of this process of connecting with people more deeply, in diverse and new ways. 

— Karen Blessen

www.29Pieces.org

www.29Pieces.tumblr.com

A Few Good Men 11:52 AM

Dad and me in our yard in Columbus, Nebraska

Ever since the MasterMind news, I’ve been thinking about Dad a lot. For most of my life, I’ve directed gratitude for the better part of me to Mom, and to the universe of women around her – my aunts, Mom’s friends.

But somehow the MasterMind competition and win took me directly to Dad. I mean, upon the news, I was happy. I thought – “This is cool. The Observer is cool.” Then I felt some disappointment that some get named, some don’t. Then I thought of how this might help us with 29 Pieces and Today Marks the Beginning. Then my mind settled on Dad, and the other men in my life who have encouraged me, pushed me, pushed me back sometimes, helped me, fed me, gave me confidence. 

But today it’s about Dad. Dad was from a very poor family of 11 brothers and sisters. (I have 53 first cousins.) His Mom spoke only German, gave birth to at least 13 children. 11 survived infancy. My grandparents had a hard time feeding this huge family and local stories say that Grandma would walk into town and beg for food for her children.

Dad was smart, capable and shrewd in many ways. But like my Mom, and many children in rural America in the early 20^th century, he was not schooled past the eighth grade.

He worked first as a farm hand, and developed skills to be a talented finish carpenter.

He was 6 ft. 2 in., lean and had an angular, handsome quality. He served in the army in World War II and came back from the European and North African front with back injuries that bothered him for the rest of his life. He didn’t talk about the war, except to laugh about some of the funny stories of his buddies and grumble about the VA.

Though now I know that these experiences were visceral to him, to me – as a child, World War II seemed like another time, another place. I had no idea of what made him the man he was.

Dad came back from the war, worked for my Mom’s parents on their farm. By this time, Dad was in his late 30’s, Mom in her early 40’s. Mom was still living with her parents – working on their farm. They got together . . . I never heard any stories of their courtship or their wedding. Mom got pregnant with me. Five months later, they got married, and I was their only child.

Just like every family, this unfolded as a complicated story. Mom showered me with love and attention. Dad saw something in me, and had the initiative to go through a process of having me enrolled in school early. While Mom would’ve been ok with a passing report card, Dad would raise his eyebrows at an A-. He wasn’t pushing me beyond my capabilities, he was pushing me to them. He made it cool to be a brainy girl, cool to excel.

There were times that Dad could frighten me. His temper and sarcasm were sometimes close to the surface. But in regards to my grades and achievements, he guided me with a light touch.

He dove right into science projects with me. One year, my friend Karen Bembry and I were doing a model of a power plant and we had to lock him out of the room where we were working . . . he had become so involved in the project that he wanted to do it!

When it came time to go to college, I was waffling between being a math or art major. Dad could’ve reacted as a cautious parent – even as Mom did – encouraging me to stay in my small town, and find a secure future – working in a factory, or as a secretary. But he encouraged me to be an artist, to stick with it, to do what I loved.

Later, as fortunate things began to happen in my life and career, Dad carried the newspaper articles in his wallet, and showed them to people. When I went through his wallet when he was dying of lung cancer, I found one of the articles and thought – “there may never be another person who carries a story about me so closely.”

He would’ve been grinning ear to ear with the MasterMind competition, because after all that effort of checking my math problems and proofing my essays, it was his kid who earned that label.

Carl Blessen during World War II

He was a complicated man. Our relationship was good but not perfect. Dad taught me to ride a bike, he taught me to drive a car, and he taught me to fly.

— Karen Blessen, written Nov. 23, 2010

www.29Pieces.org

www.29Pieces.tumblr.com

I hear a murmur 2:43 PM

John Katz and Kevin Althans at the Murmur site

I hear a murmur

Railroad trains, clunking metal,

wind through the holes in

the building.

Cathedral ceiling.

A blotted history. What

                  happened here hurt

                  people, poisoned the

                  soil, poisoned people.

It sits waiting.

Could this be the home

                  of 29 Pieces?

A Phoenix rising?

Beauty, spirit, wise

                  colossal reminders

                  emerging from this

                  stained landmark?

There’s a softness present,

                  A quietness . . . something . . .

                  Something like a murmur.

                  Something like home.

STOP

But hold on. You can’t move in

                  yet. There are formalities.

                  There are rings to exchange,

                  vows to be made, papers

                  to be drawn up + signed.

Patience, patience, patience.

— Karen Blessen

www.29Pieces.org

www.29Pieces.blogspot.com

Dallas Observer MasterMind Awards 9:55 PM

On November 11, 2010, 29 Pieces artist Karen Blessen was one of three Dallas artists to win the Dallas Observers first annual "MasterMinds" creativity award. Following is the part of the article about Karen:

Dallas Observer photo by Danny Fulgencio

Karen Blessen - artist, peace advocate

(by Elaine Liner, Thursday, Nov 11 2010, Dallas Observer, from “MasterMinds: Matthew Posey, Joel Hester and Karen Blessen Are Winners in Our Inaugural Creativity Awards”)

She didn't hear the gunshot that killed the stranger on her front lawn in Lakewood late one night in 2000. But for the next three years, Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic artist Karen Blessen thought of little else but the murder of 26-year-old David McNulty. She immersed herself in chronicling the effects of that random act of violence on McNulty's family and friends, and on those who knew the perpetrators, including the killer himself. She wrote about all of it in a long article titled "One Bullet," published in 2003 in The Dallas Morning News.

After that, Blessen says, she needed a way to heal from those "three dark years" and turn her creative energies in a different, more positive direction. She began a meditation practice she still follows that requires memorization of lines of sacred texts. No more Law & Order episodes before bedtime; in fact, no more TV at all. More exercise and a healthier diet brought even more clarity.

In 2006 came what Blessen calls her "creative burst." Over several months early that year, she built a series of shoebox-sized sculptures—"happy collages," she calls them—she would title 29 Pieces. A collection of tiny assemblages and script-covered tableaux amid swatches of cloth, pieces of twig, glass, beads and wire, they contain bits of writing by mystics and religious figures such as St. Theresa of Lisieux and St. Augustine. There are lines from Psalms and from prayers in Lakota Sioux language. The first piece says this: "If the very world should stop...."

That phrase, which came to Blessen in meditation, was her cue, she says, to reevaluate everything in her life. Was she where she wanted to be spiritually? Artistically? Personally? "The art and writing just poured out after that," she says. "It was as if a portal had opened."

After 30 years as an illustrator and graphic artist (her Pulitzer in 1989 was for work published in the Morning News), Blessen, now 58, says she "put down the colored pencils and started down a different path." Having seen the effects of violence on her own doorstep, she became an advocate for peace and for teaching nonviolent conflict resolution. She is the co-founder, with her friend Dr. Barbara Miller, of a nonprofit organization called Today Marks the Beginning, which uses art to promote peace and to raise public awareness of social issues. This fall the organization received $30,000 raised at the annual Art Conspiracy event.

Within Today Marks The Beginning is a program Blessen created and still directs called MasterPEACE, which sends volunteers, including artists, musicians, actors, writers and yoga masters into eight public and private schools in Dallas to teach lessons on peace to fifth-graders. Students learn about "Heroes of Peace," including Gandhi, Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama and others, and they're guided through studies in the meanings of love, empathy, consequences and harmony, which they then translate into art pieces using simple tools and found objects. Blessen has helped get students' art displayed publicly, including an exhibit at the Dallas Public Library. Neiman Marcus at NorthPark Center will host a show of 30 student-created MasterPEACE artworks reflecting "love" in February 2011.

Janet Perera, counselor at DISD's L.L. Hotchkiss Elementary, says the MasterPEACE program has had a profoundly positive effect on her school's students over the past four years. There are 1,000 kids enrolled at Hotchkiss, many of them children of recent refugees from African and Asian countries. More than 30 languages are spoken in the school.

"Many of these children have been highly traumatized in their lives," Perera says, "and Ms. Blessen's creative programs help traumatized children feel better about themselves and gain coping strategies." In addition to art, the children do yoga lessons, garden and develop relationships with volunteers. "They've just come from refugee camps, many of them," Perera says, "so it just makes them feel good that people care about them."

Former Hotchkiss principal Lea Beach says she believes MasterPEACE could have great impact beyond Blessen and her organization's art lessons, "though they are phenomenal in their own right." Beach would like to see Blessen's program expanded beyond the few elementary schools where it's now being used. "Our society is going through a huge change," says Beach, who now works with a nonprofit after-school program called HeartHouse Dallas. "With immigrants moving into our communities, it's going to cause a cultural shift. We're going to have to learn to get along together. I have seen refugee children learn ways to stop bullying and teasing through this program. But many children, not just refugees, are dealing with horrific situations and they could be helped, too."

At Parish Episcopal, a private school in North Dallas, counselor Vicki Millican has invited Blessen to teach several MasterPEACE sessions to middle-schoolers. The goal, Millican says, is "to help our students gain a deeper understanding of empathy and learn to find more peace in their lives....I am quite certain that their participation has made an indelible impression on them that will lead them to think and act more peacefully throughout their lives."

And that's precisely the point, Blessen says. "We're showing children how creativity can help us slow down and make some better choices. The very act of creating brings children to a calmer state."

That's the same effect making the 29 Pieces had on Blessen, after all. "When the murder happened, I knew something had changed," she says. "For three years I listened to people affected by one act of senseless violence. It had been a blip on Fox news, four paragraphs in the paper. But it just touched me deeply to discover the value and cost of one life. After those years of exploring things that were disturbing and dark in the world, I suddenly had a profound and transcendent experience that I expressed in the 29 Pieces. Now I want to share that."

In her cozy studio in Deep Ellum, Blessen has been working on a long-term project to expand the 29 Pieces to larger-than-room-size multimedia installations. With an estimated budget for the sculpture of $3.5 million, the super-sized 29 Pieces will become a traveling exhibit, or, if she can find the right building, a permanent installation similar to Donald Judd's massive Chinati Foundation in Marfa.

"It's time for artists to work on a larger scale," she says. "Art is going to manifest in ways we can't even anticipate yet."

Dallas Observer Masterminds 4:15 PM

Dallas Observer Names Nine Dallas Artists as Finalists in Its First Annual Masterminds Award

(Click here to read the entire article on The Dallas Observer online)

By Elaine Liner Thursday, Nov 4 2010

Times are tough all around, and especially for artists. Grant money is scarce and patron support isn't what it was during boom times.

Why not offer Dallas artists and creative entrepreneurs a shot at some money and a bit of buzz-generating publicity? Dallas Observer's first MasterMinds competition, launched in September, is doing just that by awarding no-strings-attached prizes of $2,000 to each of three local artists working in a variety of media—visual arts, performance, video, film and arts advocacy. The goal: To honor cultural innovators with funds to do with as they choose, whether it's seed money for a new project or just to pay rent. OK, it's not a MacArthur Genius Grant. At least not yet. But we hope the money will allow the winners a little breathing room on their bills, or even inspire them to help out a fellow artist in need. (This year's winners will participate in choosing next year's prize recipients.)

We received more than 70 submissions during the month-long nomination period. The nine finalists, chosen by a panel of Dallas Observer editors and critics, all contribute considerable energy and talent to Dallas' cultural landscape. From this group, we'll choose the three winners who will be profiled in a cover story November 11. We'll celebrate them and all the finalists on Saturday, November 13, from 8-11 p.m. at our first Artopia event in Victory Park, where many of the finalists' work will be on view. Hope to see you there.


(Note from KB . . . OK - I'm only reprinting my bit here. Go to The Dallas Observer online to read about the other 8 finalists):


Karen Blessen
Artist, writer, teacher and peace advocate Karen Blessen saw her life and career take a dramatic shift after an act of violence left a stranger dead on her front lawn in Lakewood a decade ago. She says she spent "three dark years" chronicling the effects of the murder on the victim's family and friends as well as the families of the perpetrators.


After publication of the story she wrote and illustrated titled "One Bullet," she felt the need to shift her creative energies into a more positive direction. Immersion in a meditation practice that includes memorizing lines of sacred texts resulted in a creative burst. Over several months, Blessen built a series of small sculptures titled 29 Pieces, a collection of assemblages and script-covered tableaux that contain bits of text by mystics and religious figures such as St. Theresa of Lisieux and St. Augustine. Her long-term plan is to recreate each piece into a huge room-size (or larger) multimedia installation that will become a traveling exhibit. "It's time for artists to work on a larger scale," she says. "Art is going to manifest in ways we can't even anticipate yet."


A Pulitzer winner in 1989 for her work as a graphic artist at The Dallas Morning News, Blessen, 58, now is dedicated to using "art to create awareness of social issues." She's the co-founder of the nonprofit Today Marks the Beginning, which uses art and the teaching of art to promote peace and justice. She started and now manages the sister program MasterPEACE, which teaches lessons in non-violence and peace through artistic expression to classes of fifth-graders in eight Dallas-area schools. Using yoga masters, actors, musicians and other artists, MasterPEACE introduces students to Heroes of Peace, including Gandhi, Mother Teresa and others. Blessen has had these kids' art pieces—much of it constructed from found objects—displayed publicly and published in coffee-table book form.
— By Elaine Liner