The Hidden Oliver Mural Project:
Art, Memory & Connection
When Oliver Tree passed away, many of us found ourselves looking for a way to process the loss of someone whose work had touched our lives in ways that are sometimes difficult to put into words.
For some of us, that meant listening to his music. For others, it meant remembering a particular song, a video, a show, a joke, or simply the feeling of being encouraged to be strange, creative, and unapologetically ourselves.
For us, it became a reason to make something bigger.
With his family’s blessing, a small group of artists began coming together after Oliver’s passing. We are artists who have each been influenced by Oliver in our own way, and rather than trying to create a traditional memorial, we wanted to make something that feels alive — something people can return to, contribute to, and experience in their own way.
That idea became The Hidden Oliver Project.
The first piece of that project is a large collaborative mural in Santa Cruz, created by artists who came together specifically for this purpose. We have found a home for the mural, a place that holds its own connection to Oliver and to the creative community that surrounds him. We are happy to announce the home if this mural will be The Starving Musician, located on Pacific Ave in downtown Santa Cruz.
The mural is meant to be more than a portrait. We want it to be a place where someone can stop for a moment, remember Oliver, sit with their own grief, feel inspired, or simply spend some time surrounded by art. A place that doesn’t require an invitation or an event to visit. A place that can quietly exist for anyone who needs it.
But we also want the project to reach beyond one wall.
The Hidden Oliver Project is being developed as an online, worldwide collection of artwork created in Oliver’s honor. Artists from different cities and countries will be able to contribute their own work, with pieces documented and mapped so that people can explore them from anywhere in the world — discovering the different ways Oliver’s life and art continue to inspire creativity.
This project isn’t about trying to recreate what was lost, but rather about what can still be created.
We know that nothing can replace Oliver, and we aren’t trying to. Instead, we’re interested in what happens when the creativity, inspiration, and love that remain have somewhere to go.
A mural can become a gathering place.
A painting can become a memory.
An artist in another country can create something inspired by Oliver, and someone halfway around the world can discover it.
One person’s work can inspire another person’s work. In that way, the project can become something larger than a memorial.
It can become a record of the creative ripple effect of a life that mattered to so many people.
This project has been organized by local artist and activist Pariesa Halterman in collaboration with the Nickell family and fellow local artists EM (Emily Meehan) and Augie WK of The Jams.