Located on Diablo Road near the Diablo Country Club, the trunk of a fallen tree has become a site for community art. Known as the ‘Diablo Road Stump,’ the trunk constantly features new art reflecting the holidays, seasons, and even current events.

     About four years ago, a storm took down a tree on the north side of Diablo Road near the Diablo Country Club, causing the end of the trunk to face the road. Deciding the trunk wasn’t visually appealing, one student decided to paint a jack-o-lantern on it with their father for Halloween. A few months later, they painted Christmas-themed decorations for the holidays.

     Since then, the stump has become home to around 100 different paintings layered on top of each other. The student, who wishes to remain anonymous, is now a senior at Monte Vista and has been running an Instagram account since 2019 to feature the artwork on the stump. 

     “My dad and I started painting it when I was in 8th grade,” the student said. “At first we thought they [neighborhood] would get the tree removed, so it was kind of an inside joke between us, because my dad would ask ‘how long do you think it will be before they take it away?’” 

     But the fallen tree was never removed, and though its life as a tree ended, its new life as a community canvas had begun.

“We tried to have a new painting every holiday or every season,” the student said. “Right now we are trying to think of something for Valentine’s Day.”

     The stump is public property, and although painting on it is technically vandalism, the surrounding community welcomes anyone to paint on it as long as the content isn’t vulgar. The Instagram account invites artists to send photos in to be featured. In the past year, the account has grown from around 100 followers to almost 500.

     Many people didn’t know there was an Instagram account of the stump artwork,” the student said. “It wasn’t until this year that we made paintings about Monte Vista for school spirit, and people started reposting photos from the account.”

    For those driving to Monte Vista on Diablo Road from Blackhawk, the stump is a daily sight, and its growing popularity has become a popular topic of discussion not just at school, but also within the surrounding Diablo community. 

    “People even talked about it on Nextdoor,” the student said. “What makes it cool and particularly intriguing is that no one knows who paints it.”

     Though it started with holiday paintings, it now sometimes has encouraging messages and support for local sports teams, as more artists are painting on the stump. Artists have also used the stump to make statements in light of the Black Lives Matter movement as well as the overturning of Roe v Wade. 

     “It being a community [project] brought a lot of people together,” the student said. “We even got a note once from a family who loved the stump and thanked us for what we were doing.”

     But despite the community connection the stump has built, it is, nevertheless, still home to some cross-town rivalry.

     “Before the Monte Vista-San Ramon Valley rivalry football game, I saw some SRV kids painting the stump,” the student said. “We quickly painted red and black back over it.”

     For students living near Blackhawk and Diablo Vista Middle School, the stump is a daily sighting on the ride to school. Senior Arkin Sawhney enjoys seeing the stump every day.

     “It adds some fun to the mindless traffic,” Sawhney said. “I think [the stump] is a unique way of expressing feelings and ideas and it’s always interesting to see new paintings on it.”