Teacher’s Plan Calls for 2,000 Ceramic Tiles : Peace Wall to Deliver Messages, Piece by Piece

BERKELEY —  Former ‘60s peace activist Carolyn Marks looked at her neighbor’s fence one day, which was painted with the slogan “What Have You Done for Peace Today.” That’s when she got her idea for a peace wall.

When the art teacher’s dream comes true this fall, the wall will consist of 2,000 ceramic tiles, each bearing a message of peace hand-painted by people from around the world.

She said she chose to use ceramic tiles because they will “last for centuries.”

“The threat of nuclear annihilation has led us to a loss of a sense of history,” said Marks, 45. “We live in a disposable society. But ceramic is a statement of faith in the future, that we will still be here.”

Work to Start in Fall

Construction of the wall, partly at city expense and with volunteer labor, is expected to start this fall in Martin Luther King Jr. Park behind City Hall.

She calls it the “Motherwall” because she says it will give birth to similar walls throughout the world.

Already inspired by her larger project, Marks has built two 300-tile walls, one at San Francisco’s Galileo High School and another at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco.

Since she came up with the idea of a peace wall four years ago, Marks has taken her idea to weddings, birthday parties, conferences, rallies, benefits and the Democratic Convention here in 1984.

Tile-Painting Parties

She sets up her table, piling it with blank tiles, brushes and paint. With the help of the East Bay Women for Peace, Marks also has organized many tile-painting parties.

For $2.50, the cost of the tile, anyone can create a piece of the wall, she said. Marks takes the tiles back to her studio, where she glazes and fires them. She has more than 1,300 so far, and is enlisting students from Berkeley High School to provide her with the remaining 700.

Word about the wall has spread worldwide, mainly through newsletters by anti-nuclear groups.

Although the bulk of the tiles have been made by Bay-Area residents, several hundred have been mailed to Marks from throughout the United States and several foreign countries, including New Zealand, Australia and West Germany.

3 Soviets Contributed

Three visiting Soviet officials each contributed a tile, which they painted during a tour of a local senior citizens complex.

Unlike many group art projects, Marks exercises no artistic control.

“The role of the artist is to be Jacques Cousteau . . . diving down to bring back the buried treasures of the unconscious,” she said.

Alameda County helped pay the costs of the project with $4,000 from the discretionary budget of Board of Supervisors President John George.

“It’s a gesture toward peace and an artistic work done by people without a lot of artistic training,” George said.