Wender·Vista
Oklahoma City
shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileUnited States
on the North Canadian River, in central Oklahoma

Oklahoma City

— — a city the prairie still touches.

— Where it lives

Not only on a wall.

A small tile on the nightstand catching the morning. A larger one above the fire. Yours, wherever you spend the slow hours.
— On the nightstand, a 6-inch on a walnut stand
— Among the books, a 6-inch leaning into the spines
— Beside the kettle, a 12-inch propped
— Down a quiet hall, an 18-inch floating off the wall
— Above the fire, the 24-inch in a walnut surround
— a note from the studio

“Founded in a single afternoon, the Land Run of April 22, 1889, on a stretch of unassigned prairie that went from empty to ten thousand people between noon and sundown. The Bricktown canal runs through the old warehouse quarter. The Memorial holds a field of 168 empty chairs for the morning that changed the city. The horizon never quite leaves you. — from the studio

from the studio
Oklahoma City
— bring it home

Oklahoma City, on ceramic.

Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.

What kind of piece?
One tile — square or rectangle.
How big?
the popular one — counter, shelf, nightstand
6 × 6 in · 15 cm · 1.6 lb
Surface finish
A clear glossy finish — the artwork reads as if under resin. Ideal for show-pieces and framed wall art.
How it sits
A hidden cleat — sits ¼″ proud of the wall.
$58
Hand-finished and shipped from our studio at the foot of the Smokies. On your wall in about ten days.
— size
6 × 6 in
15 cm
— weighs
1.6 lb
solid in the hand
— surface
ceramic, hand-finished
art rests beneath a thin glossy finish
— from
Knoxville, TN
our family studio, at the foot of the Smokies
— start a Coaster Set

Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.

— about Oklahoma City

The place, in three passes.

A little of what's known, in case you fall down the rabbit hole — or want to go see it yourself.
— the place

Oklahoma City is the capital and largest city of Oklahoma, with about 700,000 residents inside city limits and 1.5 million across the metropolitan area. It sits in the central plains on the North Canadian River, at roughly 1,200 feet elevation. The city was founded in a single day, April 22, 1889, when the federal Unassigned Lands were opened to settlers in the first Oklahoma Land Run. Downtown's Bricktown district occupies the original red-brick warehouse quarter east of the Santa Fe rail line, redeveloped through the 1990s.

— the year

Two dates anchor the city's calendar. April 22 marks the 1889 Land Run, when the city went from open prairie to ten thousand residents in an afternoon. April 19 marks the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building, in which 168 people were killed. The Oklahoma City National Memorial, on the original site, holds 168 bronze-and-glass chairs arranged in rows on the lawn where the building stood, lit from within after dark.

— the air

The city sits squarely in Tornado Alley. The National Weather Center is forty-five minutes south in Norman. Spring storms move in from the southwest, and the wind that runs through the long grass is the same wind Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote about. The land flattens in every direction. From the upper floors of the Devon Tower, completed in 2012 at 844 feet, the prairie reaches the horizon on three sides without a single hill to break it.

— where
United States · Oklahoma County, Oklahoma
— elevation
365 m · 1,200 ft
— position
35.4676° N · 97.5164° W
— the neighborhood

What's nearby.

A handful of named places within an hour's walk or short drive. Some we've already painted; some we will.
1 km E
Bricktown
warehouse district
1 km N
OKC National Memorial
memorial
4 km SW
Stockyards City
historic district
30 km S
Norman
university town
22 km N
Edmond
northern suburb
N
Oklahoma City
Bricktown
OKC National Memorial
Stockyards City
Norman
Edmond
— common questions

What people ask.

A few questions we get about Oklahoma City — and about bringing the piece home.
— about the place

Oklahoma City was founded on April 22, 1889, the day of the first Oklahoma Land Run. It grew from open prairie to roughly ten thousand residents between noon and sundown of the same day.

The memorial marks the April 19, 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building, in which 168 people were killed. A bronze-and-glass chair stands for each victim on the original footprint.

Bricktown is the restored red-brick warehouse district east of downtown, anchored by a one-mile canal and the ballpark of the Triple-A Oklahoma City Comets. It opened to redevelopment in the 1990s.

Yes. The metro sits squarely in Tornado Alley. The May 3, 1999 tornado near Moore, on the southern edge of the city, recorded the highest wind speed ever measured on Earth.

The Devon Energy Center is fifty stories and 844 feet tall, completed in 2012. It is the tallest building in Oklahoma and visible across much of the metro from any direction.

The North Canadian River runs through downtown. A stretch of it was redeveloped in the 2000s as the Oklahoma River, a permanent rowing course now used by the U.S. national team.

— about the piece in your home

Yes. The Land Run, the Memorial, the prairie horizon and Bricktown all read in the tile. It carries well for a relocation, a graduation, or a retirement gift back to the city.

The brick reds and warm browns pair with mid-century-modern, ranch-modern and warm-industrial interiors. The wider prairie sky reads well against pale plaster and natural oak.

Yes. Warm-industrial and prairie-modern interiors are running brick reds, raw oak and unbleached linen. A Medium of Oklahoma City reads cleanly in that palette without regional kitsch.

A single Large covers a standard sofa wall cleanly. A four-tile Mural sits better above a long console or sectional. A nine-tile Mural fills a stairwell or great room.

Yes. The Dura Satin and Matte finishes are scratch-resistant and made for backsplashes, showers and damp rooms. Glossy is reserved for framed pieces in dry spaces.

A microfibre cloth and water. The colour lives in the ceramic surface, so normal cleaning does not lift or fade it. Avoid abrasive pads on the Glossy finish.

Yes. Every WenderVista tile is original to Wender Studios. Reid Wender curates each place and the work is hand-finished in Knoxville, Tennessee. There is no licensing.

— if this one stayed with you

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