Back in June, I read an article about a mural painted on the
side of a local bakery’s storage building, which has since become known as the “Wall
of Doughnuts”. According to the bakery,
the mural is a piece of art. According
to the City of Chattanooga, the mural is a piece of illegal advertising. Here's the article I saw:
When I read this article, there was no debate in my mind
that this mural was a piece of art. It
wasn’t because I’m a liberal and wanted to protest against the City…..it was
because I honestly felt like it was, indeed, art.
I do, however, understand the stance the City
has taken. The argument didn't cause me to fly off the handle with signs of protest, because I can completely see the logical side of the issue at hand. It’s one of those cases where somebody has to draw the line SOMEWHERE, which has the City torn. The mural, though seen through my eyes (and many others) as art, falls within a gray area. If the bakery is required to paint over it, Chattanooga loses this gorgeous little piece of potential history and it becomes a depressing scenario of law over beautification. If the City approves it as art, other businesses around town will fight for their rights to paint murals on their buildings that "may or may not be" art or advertising. It makes the argument by the City more difficult if the Wall of Doughnuts is given the thumbs up to stay.
Politics.
Back up to the month of May. My husband and I had a one-year vow renewal ceremony on the beach in Florida, since we eloped at the courthouse the year before. It was a casual affair, though I did wear a wedding dress. Given that I went wedding dress shopping two months after having my second baby (and therefore was still very insecure about my body, which was still in maternity clothes), I didn't buy the wedding dress of my dreams. I loved my dress and it was perfect for various reasons, but I wasn't emotionally attached to it. After the ceremony, my dress hung in the guest bedroom of our home with its fate unknown. Did I want to pay to have it preserved? Did I want to have it drycleaned and then sell it on Craigslist? Did I want to scour Pinterest for crafty repurposing ideas? I stared at it for days on end trying to decide what I wanted to do with it, because I knew it couldn't just hang on the curtain rod staring at me forever.
Then the article about the Wall of Doughnuts popped up in my Facebook newsfeed, and I KNEW what I wanted to do.
I wanted to trash my dress at the Wall of Doughnuts. And I wanted to do it with doughnuts. And chocolate sauce and whipped cream and sprinkles.
I emailed my photographer (Heidi Burks Photography, http://photosbyheidib.com/) to see if she'd be up for a Trash the Dress session. I then called the owner of the bakery to ask if it was okay if we used her mural for our photography session, promising that we'd clean up any mess afterwards. Finally I called Angela (Makeup by Angela R, http://www.angelarmakeupartist.com/) to set up a hair/makeup session for the photos. Once we had everything lined up, we made it happen.
On the day of the photo shoot, it poured down rain most of the day. My brother and his fiancee had recently had their engagement photos taken during a rainy day, so I borrowed the umbrella the fiancee had written "Mr. & Mrs." on for their rainy day shoot to use for ours in case it rained the entire time. It actually only rained the first few minutes, but the umbrella turned out to be a perfect edition to the beginning photos. We started with a few "pregame" shots, and then got dirty from there.
Now tell me that Wall of Doughnuts isn't a piece of art. #savethedonuts
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