COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — People are seeing some of a city's most familiar businesses in a whole new way, and it's all thanks to the work of a mother and son.
You know how it is. Someone mentions a city, and there are certain places that just come to mind. With Cookeville, one of those places is Ralph's Donut Shop.
"The butter twists are it, buddy, I'll tell ya," smiled a customer.
"The boston cremes!" added another. "Course, it helps I'm from Boston."
Open since 1962, Ralph's just got a new honor. It's the honor of being captured in a diorama by artists Thomas Golz and his mother Jennifer Gray.
"Thomas notices little details," Jennifer said. "I think that's part of his autism that he notices the little minutia of what's in a place. He would use tiny little plastic bits to sprinkle on top of the model donuts. The glaze is clear nail-polish."
I first met Thomas and Jennifer a year ago. Thomas was working at the Exceptional Bean, a coffee shop that employs people of all abilities. Thomas and Jennifer created a diorama of the Bean. They discovered a talent for this while looking for things to do during the pandemic and have started calling their efforts Small World Dioramas.
"We've tried in Cookeville to capture the iconic locations," said Jennifer. "Mr. Dave over at Vicker's Barber Shop is his barber. Thomas just thinks the world of him, so we did this little barber area, and we reduced little pictures of his grand children's artwork, so that makes it really personal to him."
They've also done their church home of Washington Avenue Baptist.
"I think everywhere we go, we both think, 'what would this look like as a diorama?'" Jennifer smiled.
There are pieces of places outside Cookeville too. The Arts Center of Cannon County's about to do Little Shop of Horrors, so Thomas and Jennifer created a Mushnik's Flower Shop complete with a man-eating Audrey II.
"It's been a great bonding experience," Jennifer said. "He comes home from work, and I say, 'hey, you wanna do dioramas?' and most of the time, he says 'yes.' We work side by side. It's just our bonding time."
The two have done enough pieces, they're holding an art show at the former Harper's Rare Books and Collectibles space in downtown Cookeville.
"There are 22 dioramas that go all the way through to the back," Jennifer said to people walking in the door.
"This one is my favorite until I go to the next one," one woman said, looking over the dioramas. "He has found his calling, that's for sure. Just makes you want to touch them! It's beautiful."
"I like the Ralph's one!" added another visitor.
Speaking of Ralph's, owner John MacDonald told us it's a truly special honor to have a business recreated by Thomas and Jennifer.
"Pretty cool," John said. "His intention to detail was remarkable. I loved the bar stools, the counter."
The menu sign? They got it in the diorama. The est. 1962 on the wall? They got that too.
"You never know what you can do until you try, and I didn't know what Thomas can do," said Jennifer. "I really encourage people to try your hand at things. I stand in awe of him. I really do."
Thomas and Jennifer's show continues Tuesday afternoon. They'll be at the Harper's Rare Books and Collectibles space in downtown Cookeville from 4 to 6.
Do you have a positive, good news story to share? You can email me at forrest.sanders@newschannel5.com.
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
