Only an artist would have the vision to buy an abandoned historic church, take it apart, and move it 2,000 miles to the heart of an Arts District on the Oklahoma plains. Tom Lee was that artist, the venerable photographer that we lost too soon in 2010. Equally, only an artist would have the visi on to graft a new branch of artistic production onto this sacred site of creativity. As of 2025, multidisciplinary artist Ernesto Sanchez has taken on ownership of the Gothic revival church built in New Brunswick, Canada in 1842, making it the state’s oldest standing church building. There is an easy tell to the presence of a new Patron of Paseo. At the corner of N. Lee Avenue and N.W. 29th, an origami like sculpture in red powder coated steel sits perked up on a fresh concrete pad signed by the artist. The new chapter is well underway for the former Anglican church turned studio, then event space, then residence, now rebranded as Studio Sanchez. The structure still reads on the outside as a darling, well-kept wooden church with its fresh white paint, vertical stained-glass windows, quaint boxy spire and tidy landscaping. Sanchez enlisted a longtime collaborator in David Gipson of Gipson Design to remodel the space, especially the interior, whose verticality presents some interesting challenges. Studio Sanchez in Paseo Arts District. Photo provided. Sanchez and his team of wood wizards started on the outside first, developing a larger outdoor workspace covered in pergolas where the carpenter’s workshop and the artist’s sculpture studio co-exist amidst the gravel and sawdust. Sanchez has a thing for materiality which is best explored by handling and shaping wood, stone and steel. It might start with a piece of rebar, wire, mesh, foam, plaster or all of the above. It’s about the messy, experimental, intuitive process of bringing ideas into form. He’s always been an avid painter as well, unafraid of working on large canvases. In fact, his 9 x 20 foot oil on panel, “Massive Communication” was installed on the third floor of the Oklahoma City Convention Center last year, supported by a loan from the Oklahoma City Museum of Art where Sanchez was employed for more than 20 years. After years of maintaining an artistic practice at his home-based studio, sometimes alongside his museum career, alongside a stint in Paseo’s Casa Rosa, Sanchez was ready to expand. Some of the church’s previous renovations will remain, like the enormous kitchen island, a natural gathering spot. The biggest change to the space was to expand the square footage of the loft and build a proper wood staircase in place of the spiral staircase to the painting loft. The baluster is appropriately decorated with gothic arch cutouts echoing the stained-glass windows. The result is both handsome and functional for an artist used to working in multiple directions. Despite the inevitable dusty chaos of renovations, the artist seems to be feeding off the carpentry with several new carved wood sculptures underway. The abstract biomorphic forms are consciously scaled to the human body with slender curves and smooth apertures carved into richly grained wood. Another body of work calls to mind a twisted torso formed of goopy plaster applied by hand over a wire mesh support. Sanchez has been developing other parts of the sculpture with improvised plaster forms and polymer clay skins. As the renovation work progresses, Sanchez is putting art making in the foreground as well as travel, collecting, and curatorial projects on the horizon. Studio Sanchez is by appointment only for now, but you can check out the progress this month at the upcoming Paseo Arts Festival. It’s safe to say that this native of Monterrey, Mexico has staked his claim after 25 years in Oklahoma City, and will joyously grow on Lee’s holy artistic legacy. Visit Studio Sanchez. The post Stairway to Heaven appeared first on Oklahoma Gazette. ...read more read less