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Graves painted individual portraits of local landmarks to decorate the side of his sculpture; one is the Odell Post Office, located across the street from the church. The front includes a replica of its stained-glass window.
When you walk into Wy’East Community Church — the brown church adjacent to the Wy’East Fire District station in downtown Odell — one of the first things you’ll see is a large wooden sculpture of the building itself hanging on the wall.
Well, two walls. The model wraps around the corner, giving it a 3-dimensional appearance.
The detailed piece was recently installed at the church, created by artist Stan Graves and dedicated to his wife, Mary, who passed away two years ago.
Graves painted individual portraits of local landmarks to decorate the side of his sculpture; one is the Odell Post Office, located across the street from the church. The front includes a replica of its stained-glass window.
Stan Graves photo
Graves and his wife began going to the Odell church after friends of his wife — members of the Valley Christian choir — were invited to perform by Wy’East Pastor Doug Massingill.
“(Valley Christian) had shut down due to COVID, so they invited us to hear them sing in his church,” Graves said. “They were so nice — they served communion to my wife before she passed away — so I kept going.
“The chance of going (to the church) that one Sunday to hear the girls sing, and meeting Doug the pastor, and becoming friends, and the decision to do this art project — it all just kind of kept building,” Graves said. “Now I’ve met most of the people and I really enjoy being with them. It’s been a very good thing for me since losing my wife.”
The sculpture came about after Massingill approached him about doing some sort of community project at the church.
“He likes to involve his congregation with helping at the church,” Graves said. “I’m an artist, so I said I’d like to do something art-wise.”
The first problem he faced: Where to put the completed piece. He wanted it installed just inside the entrance, but space was an issue; it’s a small area.
Stan Graves’ “Landmark Church” sculpture wraps around the corner inside the Wy’East Community Church.
Stan Graves photo
He also wanted to create something sizable, and for it to be more than a painting, which is how he came up with the idea for a sculpture. But bulk was also an issue, so he decided to wrap it around the wall. He put up paper up — and around the corner — and drew out a pattern: The front of the church is seen from the entrance, with the side going down the hall.
The sculpture was created using three pieces of half-inch Baltic plywood; the finished piece stands out an inch and a half from the wall. Using layers also meant he was able to recreate the church’s stained glass windows, which light up thanks to a string of LED lights that can be turned on and off using a switch installed by Massingill.
The front of the sculpture mirrors the front of the church, down to the last detail. (Massingill said he hadn’t realized there were roses carved into the posts that hold the church’s welcome sign out front until he saw Graves’ sculpture.) Along the side, he painted neighborhood landmarks. There are eight in all, each mounted separately, including the Floral Building at the fairgrounds, the Wy’east Middle School mascot (an eagle), Mount Hood and the brightly painted “house” across from Mid Valley Elementary.
“I wanted to do it for the congregation, who are mostly people who live in the Odell area,” he said. “I went around the neighborhood and photographed landmarks I thought people would be familiar with.”
Graves titled the piece, “Landmark Church.”
Trisha Walker photo
Graves and his wife moved to the Hood River area 10 years ago to be closer to their daughter and her family. “We decided to move out about the time my grandson was born, and it’s been a really neat experience,” he said.
Graves has an art degree from Kansas City Art Institute and worked in advertising design for John Deere. Outside of work, he built furniture and designed the interior of houses.
“My wife and I, our thing was to redo houses and live in them,” he said. “We’ve redone six homes; three were houses and two were condos, and this last one is a house. I like to build and design, and she liked to decorate.”
He has a number of art pieces that he’s created over the years — his most prized piece is his version of Abraham Lincoln’s presidential train. “It’s whimsical,” he said. “Everything I do has a certain amount of whimsy.” The train took best of show in two woodworking shows in California.
Artist Stan Graves stands beside his Wy'East Community Church sculpture, located inside the entryway at the church.
Trisha Walker photo
Graves also likes to create toys. He grew up on a farm and has been making toys since he was a child, he said. In 2000, he designed a line of toys and published a pattern book called “Scroll Saw Toys and Vehicles” with a Pennsylvania-based publishing company.
“I love to do things for people, like my grandson — he’s 9 now, and he’s worked with me in my shop now and then. I’ve built things for him, some very complex toys that he’s been able to play with when he comes to the right age; I always have feedback from him.”
About three years ago, Graves said, his grandson wanted to make a toy from the book and picked out a truck. “We made the ruck — it’s a basic toy made from wood, but I said, ‘Anything you like to see on trucks, we’ll build on it.’ We kept adding to that toy until it was built just the way he liked it.”
But out of everything he’s made, Graves said the church is one of his favorite pieces because of how involved the congregation was.
“Everybody was into it,” he said. “As I progressed with it, I would take pictures and Doug would put the pictures on the wall.”
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