Images Framing and Fine Art closing after 43 years in business

Images Framing and Fine Art is closing its doors for good March 15 after more than 43 years in business. Though they planned to retire in 2023, owners Jane and Michael Holtz said now is the time to say goodbye.

“We announced our retirement in March of 2023, but then everybody just poured in. Business was just crazy and it kept us busy till December 2023,” Jane said. “We just had piles of work, which is great. We didn’t expect that.”

Last year brought some challenges to the owners, including health issues and a struggle to sell the business and building, which is a renovated house located at 421 N. Gilbert St.

“We kind of had to take a step back from every everything. He couldn’t work because we were both stitched up,” Jane said of her husband, Michael. “Now we’re feeling good and he’s got a little break before another surgery, so we said we gotta close it now because we can’t put it off anymore.”

Jane opened the framing business, originally on Williams Street, after the former owner passed away.

“I was taking art classes out of DACC in the 70s. This woman owned a frame shop over on Williams Street, and she needed part-time help, so I went in and I said I’d be interested in helping out because I needed a job,” Jane said.

Jane worked for her for several years before the owner passed away and someone new bought the business. That’s when Jane decided to open Images, bringing her husband on board in the business a year later.

“It was kind of just a fluke,” Jane said, laughing.

With all the extra time on their hands, the couple both look forward to having more time for their own artistic pursuits — abstract art for Jane and photography for Mike.

The couple’s daughter lives in North Carolina, so they plan to move there to be closer to her and the mountains.

“I photograph a lot in the Smoky Mountains and I plan on going back. It’s not very far from Asheville,” Michael said.

“He likes to photograph water in his pieces,” Jane said.

Even so, the couple say they have bittersweet feelings about their decision.

“It’s hard because it’s like cutting off my right arm,” Jane said. “Like when you do a piece of art and you sell it, it’s like ‘Oh! There goes my art’ … But you have to make peace with it and say goodbye.”

Most of all, they said, they will miss the friendships they’ve cultivated over the years.

“With our customers, you know, we’ve got a lot more friends,” Jane said. “It’s been wonderful meeting all these different people and making friendships. We’re a part of everybody’s life. People say that to us all the time, ‘Oh, I look around my house and I see you everywhere!’”

To thank the community for four decades of business, Images will be hosting a going out of business sale. More than 300 newly-framed decorative art pictures will be on sale, as well as supply inventory, fixtures and machines.