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The 29 Sculptures

The sculptures series, designed by artist and 29 Pieces co-founder Karen Blessen, brings to life the inspired messages and sacred words of spiritual visionaries throughout history.

Visualization of a large beige woven structure decorated at the top with pieces of blue-green glass, which resemble sea glass, and giant sewing pins holding up pieces of string, from which more glass is hanging. Three blurred figures stand in the foreground looking at the art.
Piece 9, inspired by the passage “The Mirror of this World” by Mahmoud Shabestari. Image by Karen Blessen. 

We're often asked, what does our name, 29 Pieces, mean?

In 2005, artist and 29 Pieces co-founder Karen Blessen began to practice passage meditation, a form of meditation that incorporates sacred texts from major faith traditions. As she slowly and silently repeated memorized passages, Blessen felt certain phrases explode with meaning.

She began to devote time each morning to contemplating the passages and writing about them. The words evolved into images, revealing themselves on paper and eventually emerging in three-dimensional form as models for large-scale works.

The resulting 29 sculptures, designed to be as large as 60 feet tall, embody the guiding values and principles of 29 Pieces. They bring to life the inspired messages and sacred words from Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Native American and Muslim sacred passages from throughout history.

Colorful, glittery spheres on wires protrude from a large, abstract blue sculpture in an industrial warehouse, with two blurred figures walking in the background.
Piece 24, inspired by the poem “Let me Walk in Beauty” by Lakota elder Chief Yellow Lark. Image by Karen Blessen.
A large beige woven structure at least fifteen feet tall decorated at the top with pieces of blue-green glass, which resemble sea glass, and giant sewing pins holding up pieces of string, from which more glass is hanging. Three blurred figures stand in the foreground looking at the art.
Piece 9, inspired by the passage “The Mirror of this World” by Mahmoud Shabestari. Image by Karen Blessen.
Pieces of white cloth resembling flames is draped around two tree-like twig structures in a gallery enveloped in gray walls and floor, while a woman looks at the art.
Piece 26, inspired by the passage “Lord of Life” from the Shvetashvatara Upanishad. Image by Karen Blessen.
A giant abstract sculpture made of twigs in an industrial warehouse with a message about joy written on the wall and a blurred figure in the background.
Piece 17, inspired by the passage “Entering into Joy” by St. Augustine. Image by Karen Blessen.

So far, 29 Pieces has built full-scale versions of two of the 29 sculptures in collaboration with local Dallas students, artists and community partners. These public sculpture projects gave students the opportunity to earn scholarships while learning job and life skills under the mentorship of local artists.

“The ‘29 pieces’ refers to [the] 29 pieces of sculpture that are inspired by phrases from the world’s visionaries and mystics and poets. And they’re all about, really they’re all about love.”
Karen Blessen, Co-Founder and Executive Artistic Director of 29 Pieces

29 Pieces’ first major sculpture, Piece 24, was inspired by the poem “Let Me Walk in Beauty” by Chief Yellow Lark, a nineteenth century Lakota elder. The 21-foot sculpture was designed and built by a team of Dallas high school students and master mosaic artists.

In 2016, the Dallas Public Art Committee and Cultural Affairs Commission unanimously accepted Piece 24, which proudly stands in its permanent home on Jefferson Boulevard in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of South Dallas.

The base of Piece 24, which is decorated with mosaic tiles and the text, 'The things you have', resting on a flat, square display stand with rocks on a street in Dallas.
Low-angle view of the vibrant, multicolored Piece 24 against a deep blue sky. Red, pink, blue, yellow and green spheres protrude from the sculpture with wavy metal rods, and the top features a giant mosaic hand.
Close up of a section of Piece 24 featuring abstract mosaic shapes, leaves, and a chain of figures holding hands, along with shiny, multicolored half spheres.
Close up shots of Piece 24. Photos by Danny Fulgencio.

Between 2018 to 2019, 29 Pieces partnered with the South Dallas Cultural Center to produce its second large-scale sculpture, Piece 10. Under the mentorship of 29 Pieces staff and local artists, a team of 12 middle and high school students from South Dallas public schools designed the human-scale glass sculpture, which symbolizes the mysterious qualities of seen and unseen worlds.

Stokes looks down while holding part of the Piece 10 sculpture, which is constructed from tall, multicolored glass cylinders aligned in rows. Trees are in the background.
Artist Joe Stokes works on the Piece 10 sculpture in his outdoor workshop. Photo by 29 Pieces.
Bright red, blue, yellow and green patterned glass cylinders glint in the sun.
Close up shot of Piece 10. Photo by 29 Pieces.

Piece 10, which lives in the South Dallas Cultural Center’s permanent collection, is based on a passage by Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook called “Radiant is the World Soul.”

29 Pieces hopes to finish building the remaining 27 sculptures to scale.

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