Detail, public art installation, Tyrone Carney Park

Project Title: Community Tile Mosaic, Tyrone Carney Park
Recipient Organization: East Bay Habitat for Humanity
Lead Artist: Ruth O’Day
Genre and Date Awarded: Visual Arts, December 1994
Completed: March 1996

Ceramic artist Ruth O’Day collaborated with East Bay Habitat for Humanity, and with residents, students, and community organizations in the Sobrante Park area of East Oakland to reclaim a neglected, dangerous public park through a public art project. The project sought to provide a tangible and visual example of East Bay Habitat for Humanity’s community revitalization efforts near the site of new affordable housing it was constructing. Developed over a 15-month period, the Tyrone Carney Park Ceramic Tile Mosaic was completed in March 1996.

The project’s original plan was to identify the neighborhood’s “gateways, pathways, and entryways as a means of communicating, demarcating and celebrating community.” The artist envisioned working on pathways and a series of mosaic-decorated pillars. Ruth O’Day and East Bay Habitat for Humanity convened a neighborhood design committee, comprising residents, businesses, and nonprofit organization leaders, to plan the project. As the design committee discussed the project and canvassed others in the neighborhood, the idea of focusing on Tyrone Carney Park emerged. Parents and grandparents in the area noted that, because of drug dealing, the park was no longer a safe place for their children to play. The Sobrante Park Consortium wanted to revitalize the neighborhood’s entryway business area, which was adjacent to the Park. Also, timing, costs, and structural complications arose, making the idea of constructing pillars untenable.

As she started on the project, Sobrante Park was known as an African American neighborhood, but it became clear that many Asian American, Southeast Asian, and Latino families also were living there. Therefore, while the design committee chose a design motif and a vibrant stucco color—both taken from African fabrics—volunteers painting the individual tiles incorporated symbols from many cultures. The eight-foot “guardian” mosaic relates to a Mayan cat figure.

This project encountered several problematic events. The staff member who had been working closely with Ruth O’Day left her job at East Bay Habitat for Humanity and this weakened their collaboration. One afternoon, in a freak accident, a severe gust of wind blew over a tree in the park and injured a community volunteer. The artist spent significant time and energy trying to help the volunteer get medical attention and other support while she recovered. The Haitian-born stucco contractor working on the project developed back problems and had to leave the project: replacing him was difficult as many contractors were afraid to work at the location.

The design committee’s choices also raised practical and aesthetic challenges. To work in the park, O’Day’s structural base was made up of low, concrete planter boxes (some only eight inches tall). To honor the chosen color scheme, she had to learn to work with a new kind of stucco and clay body and develop compatible glazes for the layered, rich colors.

Ultimately, the Community Tile Mosaic project was successful on many levels. The artist acquired new skills and, because of the collaboration, was pushed to work in a looser mosaic style than in her previous works. The level of community involvement in creating the mosaic was remarkable. Children in nearby after school programs and former addicts living in a neighborhood recovery program spent hours painting tiles and taping them for installation. Community gatherings in the park brought together more residents and merchants. By the end of the process, more than 200 neighbors, East Bay Habitat volunteers, and other community members worked on painting, arranging, and installing the pieces. The vibrancy of the color scheme renewed the modest planter boxes and entire park. A brilliant golden-yellow ribbon now zig-zags through the low planter structures at Tyrone Carney Park, and that stucco ribbon contains hundreds of small, hand-painted tiles.

Prior to undertaking this project, artist Ruth O’Day had shown work in two one-person and many group exhibitions. She had worked as an art teacher for older adults, Alzheimer’s patients, and adults and children with disabilities in East Bay public schools and at Alzheimer Services of the East Bay. In 1991 she had collaborated with non-English speaking Balinese artists on tile designs for house and garden entryways. In addition to her track record as an artist and art teacher, O’Day brought to this project experience as a volunteer who had helped to build solar greenhouses as heat and food sources for families in low-income neighborhoods.

The mission of East Bay Habitat for Humanity is to build community by providing low-cost home ownership opportunities to people with low or very low incomes. The homes are primarily built by volunteers and Habitat Homeowners. In 1994, East Bay Habitat for Humanity implemented a non-construction program called the “Home Improvement Process.” This program focused on the goal of creating safer, more sustainable and healthier environments for the residents of Sobrante Park through involving the immediate community in leadership development in a participatory neighborhood improvement effort. The Community Tile Mosaic complemented the Home Improvement Process.

LEAD ARTIST

Ruth O’Day

Public tile painting event for ceramic murals, Tyrone Carney Park

RESUME HIGHLIGHTS

Grants and Awards

• The Creative Work Fund, San Francisco, California (1994)
• Purchase Award, Sacramento Potters Group, Shepherd Art Center, Sacramento, California (1985)
• “Best Handbuilt” Award, Sacramento Potters Group, Shepherd Art Center, Sacramento, California (1985)

Public Installations

• Northgate Apartments, RCD Affordable Housing Corporation, collaboration with mosaicist Chere Mah. Resident workshops, design, fabrication, and installation of three-foot handmade tile plant forms for front facing of building and entry walls with colored stucco backgrounds, Oakland, California (2004)
• Children’s Hospital, collaboration with staff of hospital “Art for Life” programs to translate enlarged critter drawings into mosaics for 100 ft. storytelling wall. Design and coordination of volunteer students from Berkeley Adult School’s tilemaking classes for fabrication of 40 26” donor star and entry pillar mosaics; colored stucco backgrounds. Oakland, California (2003-04)
• Los Niños Park, San Francisco Arts Commission, tile fabrication of “Los Niños del Sol,” for cartoon artist Isis Rodriguez. Four main entryway panels, 10 ft. curved wall mural and eight small pillar mosaics inset on concrete walls with colored stuccos. San Francisco, California (2003)
• Margaret Hayward Park, San Francisco Arts Commission, design and fabrication of two handmade tile wall mosaics and insets for 40 ft. cast concrete bench/retaining wall. San Francisco, California (2001)
• Tenderloin Turk/Hyde Playground, San Francisco Arts Commission, “Guardian Serpent,” handmade mosaic and community tiles. Workshops, design, and installation on 125 ft. long concrete wall with purple stucco background. San Francisco, California (2001)
• East Bay Center for the Blind, community tilemaking workshops, fabrication, design, and installation of mosaics for entryway and building exterior, Berkeley, California (1999-2000)
• Over 60 Health Center, community tilemaking workshops, technical assistance and glaze development for mosaic artists Chere Lai Mah and Susan Wick, interior and exterior murals and donor walls, Berkeley, California (1998-2000)
• Peralta Community Garden, handmade tiles and mosaic circles for ten-foot benches designed and fabricated by Dmitri Grudsky, Berkeley, California (1998)
• Plaza del Sol, Mexican Museum and artist Rene Townsend, installation of community tiles on winding, double-seated concrete bench with broken tile mosaic background, San Francisco, California (1997)
• Mission Housing Corporation, fabrication and installation of sidewalk mosaics—jaguar and flower motifs—landscape architect, Antonia Bava, site manager/artist, Shelby Kennedy, San Francisco, California (1996, 1997)
• Tyrone Carney Park, East Bay Habitat for Humanity and The Creative Work Fund, rhythmic arrangement of colorful mosaic patterns inset with golden yellow stucco on 1,000 running feet of concrete retaining walls, signage, and eight foot “guardian” figure; design, fabrication, installation, and community workshops, Oakland, California (1994-96).
• Montessori School, hand-cut and carved tiles of animals for baseboard border in preschool classroom, Chico, California (1985)

Exhibitions

• “Fired Up About Clay: A Festival of Tiles,” The Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California (2001)
• “Northern California Tile Artisans,” Toki Gallery, Berkeley, California (2001)
• “The Art of Tile,” SMUD Art Gallery, Sacramento, California (2001)
• “The Surface Squared,” Blooming Art Gallery, Sacramento, California (2000)
• “Tiles & Quilts,” Total Travel Gallery, Alameda, California (1998)
• “Community Art Collaborations,” Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, California (1996)
• “Festival of Ceramic Tile,” San Jose Historical Museum, San Jose, California (1994)
• 1-94 Dillon Tile, Custom and Handmade Tile Showroom, San Francisco, California (1991-94)
• “East Bay Artists,” Berkeley Store Gallery, Berkeley, California (1990)
• One person show, Doyle Street Café, Oakland, California (1990)
• Octagon Center for the Arts, Ames, Iowa (1987)
• “Home is Where the Art Is,” Institute for Creative Arts, Fairfield, Iowa (1986)
• One person show, Guild for Psychological Studies, San Francisco, California (1986)
• “Uncommon Threads,” Butte County Arts Center, Paradise, California (1985)
• Sacramento Potters Group, Shepherd Art Center, Sacramento, California (1985)
• “The Human Form,” Classic Bristle Gallery, Chico, California (1985)

Teaching/Community Art Programs

• San Francisco Parks and Recreation Department, tile workshops, San Francisco, California (2000)
• Asian Pacific Institute, John F. Kennedy University, facilitator training, Oakland, California (1999)
• Berkeley Adult School, clay and mosaic community classes, Berkeley, California (1998-present)
• Berkeley Unified School District, offsite disabled adult art programs (1992-present)
• Alzheimer Services of the East Bay, Oakland, California (1989-99)
• Mexican Museum/Home Link Mentor Program, tile workshops, San Francisco, California (1996)
• Oakland Christian Center Drug Rehab Program, tile workshops, Oakland, California (1995)
• Madison Middle School, tile workshops, Oakland, California (1995)
• “Kids House” Program, tile workshops, Oakland, California (1995)
• Highland Public School, special projects, Oakland, California (1994)
• San Francisco Community Mental Health, facilitator trainings, San Francisco, California (1994/99)
• University of California, Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center, facilitator trainings, Davis, California (1993-96)
• Family Caregiver Alliance, facilitator trainings (1993-94)
• Lake Merritt Lodge Rehabilitation Program, Oakland, California (1991-92)
• Berkeley Chaplaincy to the Homeless, Berkeley, California (1990)
• ASEC Asian Refugee Co-op (1988)
• Institute of Creative Arts, Fairfield, Iowa (1987)
• Butte County Arts Commission, Paradise, California (1985)

Professional Memberships

• American Craft Council
• Tile Heritage Foundation
• Northern California Tile Artisans
• National Institute of Arts & Disabilities
• Potters for Peace

Layout of tile pieces for ceramic murals, Tyrone Carney Park

Overview, finished tile installation, Tyrone Carney Park