Maureen Bennett O'Connor

Healing, One Brushstroke at a Time: "Peace by Piece" allows people to combine ideas of peace with self-expression

When the two towers tumbled to the ground on September 11, 2001, artist Maureen Bennett O'Connor knew she had to find some way to help people cope with the tragedy.

While Bennett O'Connor took part in many community-building activities in the aftermath of 9/11-producing "Gratitude," a book thanking New York City firefighters, with letters and drawings from more than 300 people; running creative workshops in the South Bronx so people could express their grief and fear; and attending countless fundraisers and prayer services-one activity particularly close to her heart has picked up momentum of its own: "Peace by Piece," a traveling art exhibit that helps people combine ideas of peace with self-expression.

The aim of the project, which Bennett O'Connor undertook as part of a Landmark program, "is to awaken a compassionate heart in all who view it and participate in it," she says. "Most of the people who have participated did not even know they had a voice."

Composed of more than 200 pieces of stretched canvas, "Peace by Piece" employs all sorts of mediums to express peace, from writing and painting to photography, collage, and embroidery. One firefighter who lost a few friends to 9/11 even burnt a few holes in his piece of canvas to symbolize his loss. The project will expand indefinitely as other people design and send in individual expressions of peace.

Joining together these individual pieces of canvas into a larger exhibit, Bennett O'Connor says, comes to symbolize both "inner peace and global peace." "Through these small acts of self-expression," she says, "voices have been harmoniously linked peace by piece." www.peacebypiece.info