2024 MAY | JUNE Plano Magazine

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JUST ADD H20

Plano-based designer Brad Holley takes first in national competition

story Alyssa High

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Brad Holley does not take life too seriously. Even now, despite winning the Million Dollar Pool Design Challenge in his second year attempting the competition, Holley says he never saw himself as a designer.

The Million Dollar Pool Design Challenge brings together pool designers from around the globe to design hypothetical pools according to a theme — with zero budget constraints. The designs are then judged by a panel of seasoned designers.

Plano’s own Brad Holley, the design director of Pure Design, was the 2023 winner of the competition. With a yachtthemed design that featured an entertainment space, putting green, closed-loop lazy river and an island with an oversized sunken fire pit, Holley’s design has caught the eye of designers all over the nation.

Despite his current success, Holley’s road to national acclaim is unconventional. He started in the construction

industry with no formal education. After stumbling upon a job posting as the assistant to Randy Angell, a well-known outdoor designer based in Dallas, pool design became his passion.

“If you’d asked me 10 years ago if I see myself in the pool industry or as a designer, I probably would have just laughed,” Holley says. “It didn’t feel like me, but then I got into it and it felt like me. The more I learned about design and the more projects I

was given, it became who I am now.”

How did you get into outdoor design?

I worked several jobs when I was younger, but I didn’t finish any kind of formal education. I didn’t really have the discipline to stick with it at the time that I probably should have. But I had a really good work ethic, and I think that carried me from one job to the next. I made a lot of good connections, until eventually, I was invited to

be a part of a commercial construction company that renovated big apartment communities. While I was working there, I stumbled across some software called SketchUp.

It was just like everything that I needed, because it allows you to simply intuitively model things in 3D space. So I fell in love with this; I just started using it as a hobby. I found some creative ways to use it at work, but really, I was just in love with making things in 3D space.

I did a Google search on how to do something inside SketchUp and it ended up leading me to a job posting, though I wasn’t looking for a job at the time, to be the assistant to this successful designer. I didn’t know anything about swimming pools or really even about the design at the time. When I went to work for this guy, and it turned out, he was a very notable person, not just in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, but across the country. I worked with him for eight and a half years, and he essentially taught me everything that I know now.

What brought you to the Million Dollar Pool Design Challenge? What makes that competition so compelling is that it really is some of the best people in the nation. So that’s exciting to begin with. If you’re gonna be a part of that competition, you’re competing against the very best that’s out there. The other thing that makes it really exciting is that you get to design for a very unusual and uncommon scenario, in that the budget is virtually unlimited. You don’t really get to do that as a professional in real life. It’s very, very uncommon for somebody to come to you with an almost unlimited budget. The fact that you can really just go crazy and just come up with the most amazing thing that you can dream up allows you to tap into just pure creativity, because there’s no boundary there.

How did it feel to get fourth on your first try of the competition?

I actually felt more confident the first year for the design that I had submitted. I thought that what I had created was even more open. My understanding of the competition up to that point was that it was really they just wanted to see these crazy, insane designs. I was just going for ridiculous, over the top. And I submitted that, and I was really proud of it. I felt really strongly about it. Especially when I had gotten a call and I was told that I was being invited to the finals.

I guess it was a little hasty looking back. I found out once we got into the judging process. They’re all giving live critique and feedback, so they’re giving you some praise but they’re also telling you where they think that you screwed up or where you went in the wrong direction or could have done something differently. And I think that was hard to hear. I also found out that I had unintentionally broken one of the rules that wasn’t really clear. And so I think that was part of why I got fourth place.

How about winning the latest competition?

I’m still trying to get over a little bit of impostor syndrome. It’s strange to feel that I was like relatively nobody, and then I kind of out of nowhere I’m in this competition. And then suddenly I’m sort of thrust into the spotlight and being called one of the best outdoor designers in the country. It was just a very strange feeling because before I had competed in this competition, I wouldn’t have described myself as even among the best because I would get on social media and open up our industry publications and magazines and I would look at all these other amazing designers.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Brad Holley’s yacht-inspired pool design won the Million Dollar Pool Design Challenge. Portrait by Yuvie Styles.

A POP OF COLOR

How to make a small room into a piece of art

story Alyssa High photography Lauren Allen

So your house was built in the late ‘90s or early 2000s and it’s missing some character. Sure, you can overhaul the place and add some color to minimize the millennial gray, but what about those little rooms?

The half-baths and the doors on doors hiding away all of the small spaces in your home?

Nicole Arnold Interiors and Kim Pickering found a twofold solution to just that — open it up and then brighten it.

The Pickerings are a fun couple, everyone says. And their house fits their personality.

The Pickerings found Arnold through advice from a neighbor. Half of the houses on the block either used Nicole Arnold Interiors or do now after her recommendation, Kim says.

During the pandemic, Kim began looking for something to do and decided, now that her children were long moved out of the house, it was time to redo some of the rooms.

She called Arnold, who got to work first redoing the upstairs, then the master bathroom, the breakfast nook. Then the laundry room.

Originally, a cramped offshoot of the main living space held a half bathroom, the laundry room, a wine closet that had a nonfunctioning air conditioner and three different swinging doors.

The multitude of doors, once opened, made the space dysfunctional, Arnold says. So they decided to remove the laundry room door and turn the space into a room worth seeing.

Kim found the now-signature Katie Kime Dallas-themed wallpaper, and the Nicole Arnold team ran with it.

“It’s so small, so I said, ‘Let’s do something fun. Let’s do something wild,’” Pickering says.

In addition to the wallpaper, they painted the ceiling pink and installed custom black cabinetry.

“We made sure that we incorporated details that the black cabinetry was all new and custom, the floor tile, everything was worthy of being seen from the main room of

The pink art in the laundry room juxtaposed wih the allpink powder room creates a unified space.

the home,” Arnold says. “But when you look at the powder bath, we took the flip side.”

Pulling from the boldest color of the laundry room, Arnold and Pickering leaned into the pink motif with bold Rifle Paper Company floral wallpaper. The Pickerings contrasted the bright, bursting florals with clean-lined black hardware.

“Kim loves flowers. She’s just blooming,” Arnold says. “You can see walking up onto her front porch, she just exudes personality and bloom and happy, delightful things. And we felt that wallpaper embraced that perfectly.”

The powder bath and laundry hardware is gold with black glass, while the bar area’s drawer pulls are adorned with white quartz.

The bathroom’s details were too intentional to be hidden, and the swinging door still posed a nuisance, so Arnold turned the bathroom door into a pocket door.

“There were a lot of things that we paid attention to, especially detail-wise, to preserve the functionality in those spaces, but also to make that design a Wow Factor,” Arnold says.

And what started as a project aimed to increase functionality turned a bathroom and laundry room into a space worthy of the Pickering’s showing off to guests.

“This beautiful hallway is amazing. It makes me so happy every day to come in that back door and see fun,” Pickering says.

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2023

Cindy O’Gorman

Ebby Halliday, Realtors

Sharon Ketko

Sharon Ketko Realty

Jan Richey

Keller Williams Legacy

Dona Timm

Coldwell Banker Realty Plano

Christie Cannon

Keller Williams Frisco Stars

Paulette Greene

Ebby Halliday, Realtors

Lynn Urban

Lynn Urban

Deann Abbott Berkshire HathawayHS PenFed TX

Jamie Adams Compass Real Estate Texas, LLC.

Denton Aguam Keller Williams Legacy

Syed Ansari DFW 1 Realty, Inc.

Jeffrey Arron

Allie Beth Allman & Associates

Linda Awad

Compass Real Estate Texas, LLC

Chenoa Barhydt

Compass Real Estate Texas, LLC

Sophie Baweja REKonnection, LLC

Samah Beaini

Compass Real Estate Texas, LLC

Lisa Birdsong

Compass Real Estate Texas, LLC

Mark Bradford

Coldwell Banker Realty Plano

Brandi Bragg

Allie Beth Allman & Associates

Stephen Brooks

Royal Realty, Inc.

John Butcher

Ebby Halliday, Realtors

Nikki Butcher

Ebby Halliday, Realtors

Robin Cappelli

Ebby Halliday, Realtors

Tracy Cavazos

Compass Real Estate Texas, LLC

Eric Chen

Aesthetic Realty, LLC

Jeff Coats

Compass Real Estate Texas, LLC

Mary Anne Collins

eXp Realty LLC

Rosa Collins

At Properties Christie’s Int’l

We’re lucky to live in one of the best cities in the U.S. (in our humble opinion), and that has a lot to do with the Realtors ® who champion our city and value our property. To recognize them, here are Plano Magazine’s 2023 Top Realtors in Plano.

Plano Magazine’s annual Top Realtor special section recognizes the Top 5% of all active neighborhood Realtors, determined by reported sales volume.*

TOP 25

Jagjit Singh

Jagjit Singh

Ginger Weeks

RE/MAX DFW Associates

Jackie Dorbritz

Compass Real Estate Texas, LLC

Mary Reeves

Ebby Halliday, Realtors

L.J. Erickson

Duggan Realty Advisors L.L.C.

Bernice Maez

VIVO Realty

Feras Rachid

Opendoor Brokerage, LLC

Alexa Conomos Anderson

Keller Williams Urban Dallas

Bailee Cox Monument Realty

Liz Crisostomo

Coldwell Banker Apex, Realtors

Jiaying Cui

Keller Williams Frisco Stars

Brian S. Curry

RE/MAX DFW Associates

Helen Curry

Ebby Halliday, Realtors

Jennifer Daniel

Milligan

Keller Williams Legacy

Karla Davis

Fathom Realty

Zachary De

Bernardi Standard Real Estate

Roxanne DeBerry

Keller Williams Legacy

Hunter Dehn

Hunter Dehn Realty

Nafisa Dharamsi

Fathom Realty

Russell Dimmick

Ebby Halliday, Realtors

Camille Duhoux

Redfin Corporation

Carolina

Dusenbery

Redfin Corporation

P.J. Evans

Keller Williams Realty

DPR

Nadia Fakih

Compass Real Estate Texas, LLC

Sarah Fakih

Compass Real Estate Texas, LLC

Jay Fang U Property Management

Tamila Fathi

Coldwell Banker Realty Plano

Stacey Feltman

Ebby Halliday, Realtors

Marissa Fontanez

Real

Tod Franklin DFWCityhomes

Casi Fricks

Redfin Corporation

Jeanne Gary

Keller Williams Legacy

Amanda Glass

Coldwell Banker Realty Plano

Eugene Gonzalez

Dave Perry-Miller Real Estate

Scott Greenberg

RE/MAX DFW Associates

Nitin Gupta

Competitive Edge Realty LLC

Karen Hanson

Open House Texas

Realty&Invest

Deborah Hayes

Keller Williams Realty

Allen

Julie Haymann

Allie Beth Allman & Associates

Debi Hensley

Robertson Realty, LLC

Jeff Jacobs

Keller Williams Frisco Stars

Michelle Jones

Coldwell Banker Apex, Realtors

Claudia Kelley

Coldwell Banker Apex, Realtors

Ryan Kirkpatrick

Compass Real Estate Texas, LLC

Will Koberg

Keller Williams Frisco

Stars

Andre Kocher

Keller Williams Realty-FM

Ram Konara

REKonnection, LLC

Justin Lawrence

RedBrix Realty

James Duggan

Duggan Realty Advisors L.L.C.

Terri McCoy

Keller Williams Legacy

Valerie Bracchi

Compass Real Estate Texas, LLC.

Torn Grisak

Keller Williams Realty Allen

Jeanie Douthitt

Coldwell Banker Apex, Realtors

Pamela Rosener

Coldwell Banker Apex, Realtors

Russell Rhodes

Berkshire HathawayHS PenFed TX

Paul Leddy Orchard Brokerage, LLC

Adrienne Leonard

Keller Williams Legacy

Stacey Leslie EXP REALTY

Pamela Lewis

Ebby Halliday, Realtors

Cherise Li

Keller Williams Realty

Allen

Cynthia Li

Keller Williams Realty

Allen

Tammy Lowe

RE/MAX DFW Associates

Todd Luong

RE/MAX DFW Associates

Dena Malasek

Monument Realty

Nancy Markham

Briggs Freeman

Sotheby’s Int’l

Cheryl McCarter

Keller Williams Legacy

Don McGrath

Lovejoy Homes Realty, LLC.

Kim Mclaughlin

Coldwell Banker Realty

Andrea Miller

Keller Williams Realty

DPR

Kimberly Miller

Ebby Halliday, Realtors

Andrew Montoya

The Drew Company

Robert Moore

Perry Homes Realty LLC

Keegan Mueller

Fathom Realty LLC

Nichole Nguyen

1st Class Real Estate

Next Generation

Tuan Nguyen

AMX Realty

Nazira Nurani

HomeSmart Stars

Steve Obenshain

RE/MAX Dallas Suburbs

Ann O’Blenes

RE/MAX Dallas Suburbs

Suzanne Mitchell

Keller Williams Legacy

Daniel Harker

Keller Williams Realty DPR

Kimberly Woodard

Ebby Halliday, Realtors

Ying Xu RE/MAX Dallas Suburbs

Raphy Ohana

Coldwell Banker Realty Plano

Liangcheng Pan

Keller Williams Frisco

Stars

Alex Perry

Allie Beth Allman & Associates

Kathy Pittman

Transcend Realty Group, LLC

Sophia Polk

Sophia Polk Realty

Mary Poss

Ebby Halliday, Realtors

Lisa Richardson

Halo Group Realty, LLC

Brad Ritz

Compass Real Estate Texas, LLC

Renee Rubin

Compass Real Estate Texas, LLC

Tanya Rutledge

Coldwell Banker Realty

Frisco

Faruk Sabbagh

Ebby Halliday, Realtors

Tanya Sanchez

Local Realty Agency

Linda Schilz

Linsch Realty LLC

Kari Schuveiller

Keller Williams Realty

DPR

Swati Shah

Keller Williams Frisco

Stars

Karen Sharp

Coldwell Banker Apex, Realtors

Brian Shuey

Ebby Halliday, Realtors

Tracey Shuey

Ebby Halliday, Realtors

Janis Smith

Coldwell Banker Realty Plano

Carol Tang Super Realty, LLC.

Kash Tavakoli

Rad Realty Group LLC

Karen Taylor

Ebby Halliday, Realtors

Carol Thompson

Keller Williams Legacy

Crystal Thompson Offerpad Brokerage, LLC

Kelly Thompson

Ebby Halliday, Realtors

Thomas Thompson

Keller Williams Legacy

Cindy Torgussen

Ebby Halliday, Realtors

Hillary Turner

Compass Real Estate Texas, LLC.

Shelly Vaughan

Ebby Halliday, Realtors

Anne Vestphal

Ebby Halliday, Realtors

Rachael Wang

Redfin Corporation

Linda Wasserman

Ebby Halliday, Realtors

Rachel Wester

Acquisto Real Estate

Jay Wicker

Ebby Halliday, Realtors

Lisa Williams

eXp Realty LLC

Sheila Williams

Central Metro Realty

Travis Wilson

Worth Clark Realty

Kelly Wise

Worth Clark Realty

Pamela Woods

Dave Perry-Miller Real Estate

Judi Wright

Ebby Halliday, Realtors

Guang Yang

KINGFAY, INC

Qiuni Yang

D FUTURE REALTY, LLC

Lillie Young

Allie Beth Allman & Associates

Sally Zaharovitz

Fathom Realty

“They listened carefully and guided us with thoughtfulness, professionalism and friendship achieving our ultimate goals of buying and selling our homes flawlessly. We will forever be grateful of their real estate knowledge and influence.”

He is more then a realtor, he truly treats you as if he has known you for many years and watches over your interests as if you were special. My family will always use Sam and we highly recommend him to all. “Gayle” Sam Beaini

214.218.1746

Sam.beani@compass.com

We’re home-grown. We’re family-owned. We guide our clients through the intricacies of luxury transactions, whether you’re buying or selling.

“Renee went above and beyond at all stages of the process. She was extremely communicative, personable and knowledgeable She made great recommendations to aid the sale of the home and went out of her way to support us. Thank you again!”

- Heather G., Recent Seller

The Dream Tacos has chicken, beef and veganfocused tacos aimed to please any palate.

When one thinks of pizza, $1 slices and a greasy, cheesy delivery meal come to mind. When one thinks of a sandwich, a lunch-box filling PB&J comes to mind. Yet, upscale, full-service restaurants line the downtown streets of every major city, turning a casual comfort meal into a culinary experience.

But why do tacos, the comfort food of Texans everywhere, not have similar concepts?

This is the premise that The Dream Tacos chef Chetra Chau has been trying to perfect for the last decade. And with The Dream Tacos, which opened on Preston Road late last year, Chau believes he’s done it.

The highlights? A birria coconut curry chicken taco with braised chicken, coconut cream-infused India and Thai curry with herbs. A banh mi taco with Chetra’s sauce, patel, cured pork ear, braised pork belly, pickled slaw, jala, Asian herbs and a sriracha drizzle. A bulgogi Korean taco with marinated Beyond meat, bulgogi sauce, scallions and a cellophane noodle garnish.

Chau started cooking in his family’s homestyle cooking restaurant five years ago working in the front of house for 12-16 hours a day and coming home to take care of two children, he says.

“I was burned out.”

Though weary from the physical labor, Chau wanted to challenge his culinary abilities, and got a job as a chef at the Hilton Anatole.

A TASTE FOR EVERY PALATE

The Dream Tacos introduces global cuisine to the tortilla

story Alyssa High photography Kathy Tran

“I was very fortunate enough that the executive saw the opportunity to train me and I excelled at it,” he says.

Chau grew in the culinary rankings and became sous chef, reveling in the ability to look at ingredients or see menus and visually build a meal.

“Becoming a chef, I realized that my personality came out outside of the box, my creativity, my presentation

Zato Thai Cuisine & Sushi Bar offers you traditional Thai cuisine and fantastic sushi prepared by our expert chef with over 10 years of experience. Come experience our great traditional Thai dishes and sushi. We welcome you to enjoy our delicious cuisine and make unforgettable memories.

to elevate a dish, make it more fun,” he says.

Chau wanted to go to culinary school, but with two kids at home and working a full-time job, time and money constraints got in the way. So instead, Chau bought all of the books he could find online for culinary students and famous chef’s recommendations.

“I even flew to New York, Las Vegas, California,” Chau says. “Visiting the restaurants just to learn the technique, look at the venues and ask questions. I’ve learned to fuse the different cultures together, and when I do that it makes me so happy.”

He then became a chef at the Marriott International where he learned cooking styles from France, Japan and other cultures.

When it was time to go off on his own, Chau became a private chef.

“[The clients] were my research and development,” Chau says. “At one point, I worked seven days a week because after my divorce I went to just focus on work. And then I got sick from working too much.”

Chau was ready to make the switch from private catering to his own restaurant, bringing his client’s favorites into one menu. However, the pandemic had just hit, and few restaurant properties were available.

Chau settled on a spot in Bedford, where he opened up Chetra’s Kitchen.

“I told people that if my concept succeeded in Bedford, I could succeed anywhere,” Chau says. “You really have to work hard to get these people to come in.”

Chetra’s Kitchen was full of typical entrees like steak and pasta, but the item that many highlighted

was the taco menu, which featured unconventional cultural pairings like the bulgogi taco.

Chau noted that there are lots of twists on basic concepts that have turned upscale, like pizza and sandwiches, but that a full-service upscale taco joint was not common. He launched The Dream Tacos in Bedford in 2022.

When The Dream Tacos landed a spot on Texas Monthly’s Top 25 New(ish) Taquerias in Texas, Chau realized that his goal of “tacos you could dream about” was coming true, he says.

“I realized that in Bedford I could not grow because the population is too small,” Chau says. “So I came to Frisco and Plano where all the foodies are.”

Chau researched the demographic of the area, aiming to combine the cultural dishes that the population is used to with the taco concept.

“I need to create something that touches everybody’s palate and still have this unique concept,” he says. “Everyone loves fusion.”

Tacos ring up between $6.99 and $9.50 each, but finishing more than a couple is no small feat.

Much like the ambience of the restaurant itself — full of color, texture and neon signs sporting taco-centric phrases — the martinis and margaritas feature a variety of bright and sweet concoctions.

A lychee martini features Absolut vodka and SOHO lychee liqueur shaken with lychee syrup. Margaritas come frozen or on the rocks in a variety of flavors.

“I want to touch people’s hearts and people’s palate,” Chau says. “I want to see the ‘wow.’”

The Dream Tacos , 8245 Preston Road, 972.2294.5429, thedreamtacos.com

The sushi nachos are Chau’s appetizer blend of Japanese and Mexican cuisine.

the roller kingpins

PLANO’S TIGHTEST SUBCULTURE HIDES IN PLAIN SIGHT

fritz Peitzner is roller skate royalty. “There was a skatepark with a shop and everything you needed just 10 minutes from my home when I was a kid and picking up rollerblading,” he says. “It was called Eisenbergs Skatepark and it was the home for skaters.”

Eisenbergs crammed a heap of ramps and rails into a small block in Downtown Plano, complete with a skate shop and arcade just walking, or rolling, distance away. Peitzner recalls teaching lessons in the park at a young age.

In 2012, owners Essi Babaahmadi and Vicki Eisenberg were pushed out of the location in favor of a mixed-use development. Plano skaters didn’t have a home.

Peitzner knew the heyday of Eisenbergs like no other, and set out to create a hub of his own in its absence. Carriers, his own skate and apparel brand, was born out of his garage in 2014. In 2018, Peitzner bought a van to sell out of. By the end of the year, he had his first brick-and-mortar location right back in Downtown Plano. Recently, he launched Cymatics, a roller skating wheel brand that Carriers sells in-store.

The city’s skaters suddenly had an orbit, gravitating to Carriers until the brand became big enough to begin sponsoring skaters through competitions around the country. One of the first Carriers-sponsored skaters was Hunter Grimm, who Peitzner first met in 2007.

“He was still a beginner and much younger,” Peitzner recalls. “But he had a drive to him that most of the younger skaters in our area did not have.”

Grimm was a teenager playing baseball and football at the time. He specialized in rollerblading.

Roller skating involves the use of skates with four wheels, arranged into two opposite rows.

Rollerblading, also known as inline skating involves the use of skates with a single row of three wheels.

“Rollerblading was always the thing where I could get away from those competitive sports and not have a coach always yelling,” Grimm says. “I could just go skate by myself, zone out and kind of teach myself.”

Peitzner didn’t think much of Grimm at the time, but remained acquainted with Grimm when he’d see him around at parks.

“After a few years we all noticed how much better he was getting and his personality really began to shine,” Peitzner says. “Hunter is a very talented skater with an amazing personality, he is the perfect person to sponsor for events.”

Grimm represented Carriers at events around the country, even giving lessons out of the shop for a short time.

“The rollerblading industry is underground right now,” he says. “It’s been hard to make a living so a lot of people work normal jobs and return to their passion project.”

In 2018, Grimm was doing just that. His time outside of the parks was spent waiting tables in Colorado. One day, he received a call that would change his life. Cirque du Soleil was putting together a show on ice, and he was offered a role in it.

“I was finally going to be able to make my passion a career,” Grimm says.

It was thrilling news, but it also meant a total upheaval of his life.

“I was sent up for seven weeks to do my training,” Grimm says. “My day would look like four hours on ice in the morning, then you come back to have lunch, then go to choreography, then you go to makeup class and acting class after that.”

Once his brutal training schedule was complete, Grimm began to perform and learn the subtleties of ice skating.

“It’s a little different on ice,” he says. “With the sharp turns we take and kind of acting and giving attention to the crowd. It’s new. We’re just rollerbladers that haven’t really performed and stuff.”

Grimm took specialized classes for ice skating, a far cry away from his experience growing up with rollerblading.

“Once I got into rollerblading that was all kind of self taught,” he says. “It wasn’t as accessible to find YouTube videos and much about the rollerblading industry as it is today.”

“That’s one thing I love about ice skating,” says David Lewitt, a local skating content creator. “There are structured organizations and skating clubs, written curriculum, group lessons and many skilled coaches that offer private lessons to help you work your way through the curriculum.”

Lewitt runs a YouTube channel called Deez Skates , where he goes out of his way to reach across the aisle and include content relating to each skating discipline.

“These things make ice skating less accessible to many people, and the beauty of roller and inline skating is that they’re accessible to people of pretty much every social class,” Lewitt says. “It costs much less to run a roller rink than it does

an ice rink and you can roller skate anywhere it’s allowed. Inside or outside.”

Lewitt has spent his life doing just that.

“I’ve been roller skating basically as long as I’ve been walking,” he says. “My mother was a skater in the ‘60s, but my grandmother wouldn’t allow it because she was scared my mom would get injured. When my mom got her driver’s license in high school she would go herself. She loved skating, but there were small kids there that were way better at it than she was. I guess over time she got pretty resentful that her mom’s fears had held her back so much. As soon as she had a kid she was going to make them learn how to skate.”

Lewitt says his mother started strapping skates on his feet and taking him on walks as early as 2 years old. Now, he’s one of the community’s prominent influencers.

“There was a time where I could go to a roller rink, strap on my skates and roll around all night and not talk to anyone,” he says. “Now, I can’t go anywhere without someone recognizing me and it’s made me feel more accountable.”

That accountability comes with the territory. Lewitt continues to put himself out there as a leader in a small, but tight-knit roller skating community.

“I want to be a good example to people of all ages,” he says. “Whether they love skating already or are just getting interested in it.”

Grimm has experienced the craft as a beginner and as a performer at the highest level. To him, its appeal is universal.

“Learn to love the simplicity of it,” he says. “Just get in your own zone and ride. It’s almost like a meditation.”

story Simon Pruitt | photography Lauren Allen

THE NOT SO INVISIBLE STRINGS

Plano’s fiber artists aim to grow an inclusive community for the medium

story

SAlyssa High | photography

Lauren Allen

ince Christine Miller and Shannon Hardy were “young girls,” fiber arts have always been a hobby. Looking back, both have fond memories of knitting or sewing at recess.

“We were hardcore,” Christine says.

Now, nearly half a century later, the two are retired and devoted to the craft full time. With the help of Christine’s husband Keith and Martha Myre, whom they met in the Dallas Handweavers Guild, they have created a fiber arts community in Downtown Plano.

At 1108 Summit Ave., two fiber arts studios stand side by side like a “little compound,” with the four resident artists aiming to increase education related to fiber arts and get more people into the craft.

Looking at the space from the outside, it’s hard to imagine an artistic community lies within.

Upon entering the Summit Avenue Artisan Studios space, you’ll find a gallery to your left featuring Christine and Keith Miller’s pandemicera collection that was shown at the ArtCentre of Plano. The collection features wire and fabricwoven pieces twisted to look like coral and paired with beachy resin paintings of Keith’s.

Christine retired from teaching art at Williams High School six years ago, and the artistic community gave her days a new sense of purpose.

“A lot of teachers say, ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do when I retire,’” Christine says. “I just came right back to the studio.”

Christine has spent the last few decades learning wire art, and even wrote a book called Weaving with Wire: Creating Woven Metal Fabric last year that teaches readers how to start weaving with wire themselves.

“After 30 years of weaving with wire, I haven’t even scratched the surface of its possibilities,” Christine says. “I’m just crazy for wire … You’ll have

to pry my cold, dead hands off our looms.”

To the right side of the studio is a small retail space where fiber artists of all mediums can sell their pieces. You’ll find scarves, rugs, pot holders and more from local artists.

Hardy’s quilting and weaving studio space is tucked back there, too.

“It’s kind of astounding when you look back on it,” Christine says. “The thing is that Shannon and I never stopped. Even when we had family and kids and all that stuff.”

Keith’s studio is a bit further down, where he experiments with different blends of resin art. After retiring from his construction supervisor career, Keith remembered a lesson he’d seen Christine teach on resin art and got to work perfecting the craft.

“[I was] learning and having a lot of fun, just trying things out,” Keith says. “There’s this thing that I like about it where you just have to move and go with it.”

In the next door suite is FiberFrolics Art Studio, home to classes often filled with fellow members of the Dallas Handweavers Guild. FiberFrolics is run by Martha Myre, who hosts classes at different levels through Zoom and in person. The

studio provides classes on a gamut of fiber arts — spinning, weaving, felting, dyeing, knitting, crochet and sewing.

Fiber arts covers some fabrics’ journey from beginning to end. Myre has some clothing pieces that she’s dyed, woven and sewed herself, all in the studio.

“In Texas, people don’t know as much or understand as much about the fiber arts,” Christine says. “So for decades, I’ve been personally trying to educate the public about it … For hundreds of years, fiber arts have been considered women’s work, and in the 21st century, a lot of young artists are bringing fibers into their mixed media or into their artworks altogether and it’s really exciting.”

You can meet these fiber artists during an upcoming open studio weekend on May 18-19 or June 29-30 or spot the Summit Avenue Artisan Studios’ work at the ArtCentre of Plano from May 4 to June 22 in an exhibition called Threads of Our Lives, which includes pieces representing members of The Dallas Handweavers & Spinners Guild, The Dallas Area Fiber Artists and The Fort Worth Weavers Guild.

Miller, Hardy and Myre form a fiber arts community in Downtown Plano.

Angelica-Jasmine Bates will compete to be Miss Texas for America Strong on May 4 and 5.

Pageants & passions

PISD

teacher Angelica-Jasmine Bates uses pageantry to promote ASL education

story Krista Fleming | photography Victoria Gomez

When she was still in high school, Angelica-Jasmine Bates was cleaning out the garage with her dad. There was a box full of trophies she didn’t recognize.

She turned to her dad and asked, “What is this?”

Offhanded, like it was common knowledge, her dad told her, “You were in baby pageants.”

That’s when Bates began looking into pageantry for teenagers.

A decade later, Bates is the American Sign Language (ASL) teacher as Jasper High School, a job she balances with her role as Miss DFW. She has also served as a keynote speaker and the founder of SignUp! Texas, a nonprofit that offers scholarships to students interesting in pursuing interpreting.

“It really means a lot to do all the things I’ve been able to do,” Bates says. “I can make a difference in so many lives, and that’s something we need. That’s something I’ve needed, and now I can give it back to someone else.”

The desire to help others was what made her love pageantry. Bates was involved with the Miss Texas America competition for eight years, volunteering and building a rapport with the community.

Through pageantry, Bates accumulated enough scholarships to become a student at Southern Methodist University.

“It was my dream and I wasn’t going to give it up,” Bates says. “Even on the days where it was so hard, when I didn’t understand the content or I felt overwhelmed, I just reminded myself that I made it. I was at the one place I had wanted to be at for so long.”

Bates continued pageantry while at SMU and worked on campus as an ASL tutor, along with a part-time job as a clerk at a nearby hotel. She studied communications, wanting to open her own

interpreting agency, but struggled in the math portions of starting her own business.

“Statistics blew me out of the water,” Bates says.

She continued using ASL as her talent in pageants, performing skits, monologues and songs. Bates says she makes it as entertaining as she can, sliding across the floor and dressing to the theme of what she signs. After being involved in the Deaf community for over a decade, her former ASL teacher reached out with a job offer.

Bates was hired on the spot.

“[My former teacher] told me she thought I would be an amazing fit for the job because I had the skills and the drive for it,” Bates says. “I absolutely fell in love with the role of teaching because it is the embodiment of being a leader.”

Through pageantry, Bates promotes her platform, SignUp! Texas. The nonprofit was started in 2012 and focuses on three qualities: communication, character and creativity. She uses it to help others express themselves verbally and non-verbally, along with offering scholarships. She plans to later expand to be an extension of her brand, “Her Energy Speaks.”

“Serving others makes me feel like the world is a better place because I have power in it,” Bates says. “I can be a mentor to someone who may have no one else.”

Bates will compete to be Miss Texas for America Strong on May 4 and 5. If she wins, she will go on to compete in Las Vegas to be Miss America Strong.

“Nothing is guaranteed,” Bates says. “There is always a moment where even when you give it your all, you’re just proud of what you did on the stage. You hope for the best, but whatever happens, happens. All you know is that you were able to make an impact on those judges and be a leader for your organization.”