Tyler Morning Telegraph Article About Gold Leaf Gallery in Tyler

It is a room into the minds of artists from all over the world. Where vibrant, earthy, wacky, west­ern, sym­me­try and swirls live togeth­er in an intrigu­ing play­ground for all imaginations.

Whether wan­der­ing in or on a spe­cif­ic mis- sion, the Gold Leaf Gallery is a one-stop-shop for every­thing close to heart.

A self-con­tained haven for the finest in cus- tom fram­ing, orig­i­nal paint­ings, lim­it­ed edi­tion prints, and sculp­tures; the own­ers and sis­ter duo Deb­bie Shores and Traci Bre­vard care for every piece as if it were one of their own.

Shores has been a cus­tom framer since 1988. She attend­ed Arts Mag­net High School in Dal­las then went on to the Art Insti­tute of Dal­las. She is an expert in art and cus­tom fram­ing, uti­liz­ing Pro­fes­sion­al Pic­ture Framer Asso­ci­a­tion stan­dards. Shores is well known in the East Texas art indus­try not only for her qual­i­ty of work but per­son­al atten­tion to detail. It was at The Art Insti­tute where Shores real­ized her love and tal­ent in cut­ting mats and fram­ing pictures.

After get­ting a job at MJ Designs Cor­po­rate Head­quar­ters, Michael James Dupey, of Michael’s, saw Shores’ skill and tal­ent for at- ten­tion to detail. Per­son­al­ly train­ing her for more dif­fi­cult spe­cial­ty projects that came in the door and send­ing her to cal­lig­ra­phy school where she learned chancery ital­ic to enhance matting.

Bre­vard, also a respect­ed artist, was award­ed the Nor­dan Fine Arts Schol­ar­ship to TCU in 1985, after grad­u­at­ing from Arts Mag- net High School in Dal­las. She has been in sales and sales man­age­ment since grad­u­at­ing with a Bachelor’s in Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion from the Uni­ver­si­ty of North Texas. At Gold Leaf Gallery, Bre­vard enjoys com­bin­ing her orig­i­nal love for art and design with her love of sales.

This sis­ters’ pas­sion shows not only in their pre­cise and thought­ful work, but is felt rush­ing through the veins of the gallery.

After their par­ents had moved to Tyler from Dal­las, the sis­ters decid­ed “home is where your mom is,” said Bre­vard, and joined their par­ents in the place they both now call home, the Rose Cap­i­tal of the World.

Fed up with frame shops that were only con- cerned with speed and not qual­i­ty, Shores

walked into the Gold Leaf Gallery where Buster Bar­low, founder of the gallery in 1974, hired her on the spot. Buster was so impressed with her integri­ty and pas­sion for fram­ing, he told her he would like to one day sell the gallery to her.

Less than two years lat­er the artists pur- chased Gold Leaf Gallery. “When Deb­bie and I bought the gallery in 2009, we decid­ed to attribute our mis­sion state­ment to our Grand- mother’s favorite say­ing, ‘do unto oth­ers as you would have them do unto you.’ Our cus­tomers become our friends.” said Brevard

Offer­ing in-home or busi­ness design and con­sult­ing for art and fram­ing, they are known not only for stun­ning cus­tom fram­ing but also TV fram­ing. With con­ceal­ment options like mir-

rors or motor­ized art, there are many dif­fer- ent ser­vices they pro- vide includ­ing cre­at­ing spe­cial secu­ri­ty enclo- sures to dis­play valu- able pieces.

“As artists our­selves, we take the time to ex- plore fram­ing designs to cre­ate the best fram- ing ensem­ble for each piece while sen­si­tive to each customer’s bud­get. As picture

framers, we look at the world of art through our customer’s eyes, in order to inter­pret, ex- tend, and enhance their trea­sured art forms,” said Brevard.

They also uti­lize unique cal­lig­ra­phy ser­vices for wed­ding invi­ta­tions, quo­ta­tions on mats and names in Bibles. This per­fect pro­fes­sion­al and detail ori­ent­ed pair leave no stone un- turned or heart untouched when it comes to pro­vid­ing the best for their clients.

The ladies behind Gold Leaf Gallery have more than 40 years of in-house expe­ri­ence using qual­i­ty, con­ser­va­tion meth­ods of fram­ing and design.

“Deb­bie and I come from a fam­i­ly of artists,” said Bre­vard. Our moth­er, Bar­bara Holmes, is an artist. She great­ly influ­enced us in design as an inte­ri­or dec­o­ra­tor in Dal­las for many years before mov­ing to Tyler. Our Father, Worth Holmes, enjoys his retire­ment cre­at­ing beau­ti­ful wood­turn­ings and musi­cal instruments.

“It runs in our blood,” says Brevard.

“We absolute­ly love our busi­ness and our cus­tomers. We thank God for our won­der­ful life here in Tyler. Peo­ple bring us cher­ished pieces of art and we get to make them even more beau­ti­ful!” says Brevard.