LAKEPORT — Owner Gail Salituri announced last week that her Inspirations Gallery, located in downtown Lakeport, would close at the end of February, allowing her to enjoy a “semi-retirement.”
“A beautiful and charming Victorian-style building, filled with art and memories are very difficult to leave,” she said in an email Friday.
“A 14-year span of creativity, fun, sorrow, friends and clients, all highly valued as the turning pages in this chapter of my life at 165 N. Main St. concludes. I could have stayed, but I”m moving on into different directions,” she added.
Closing the gallery will allow Salituri to work on her art and spend time with family.
“With great reservations, the decision has been difficult. However there was a tugging at my pant leg by a 16-month-old baby girl saying, ”Grammie, up.” An empty easel with a blank canvas and unused brushes are awaiting my grip, and a life with new adventures is on the horizon,” she said.
“Painting for national juried art competitions has been something I have missed while running a Lakeport business and opportunities to paint with a master artist, are before me,” Salituri added.
With her free time, Salituri plans to complete a mystery book, for which she drew inspiration from a real-life tragedy.
Salituri”s friend, Barbara LaForge, was gunned down at her Lakeport framing shop nearly 10 years ago, a case that remains unsolved for the Lakeport Police Department (LPD). The two women shared office space on North Main Street.
“I continually hope life, fate, and the LPD one day reveals the answers to the constant and lingering questions of who took her life. The unsolved mystery is of the greatest disappointment to me and words can barely begin to express my frustration. Yet, from it all a mystery book creation has evolved,” Salituri said.
She also hopes to reopen her home studio, which will let her reach the gallery”s worldwide clientele online.
Salituri”s work is currently exhibited at Lee Youngman Galleries in Calistoga, and a different group, Main Line Art & Design, recently contacted her about her vineyard and wine country art creations.
“Inspirations Gallery, you have been a wonderful and successful venture. I will miss you and all that encompasses my creation of you. All my wonderful clients who have kept our gallery in business, my heartfelt thank you for your patronage,” Salituri said.
The gallery is scheduled to close by the end of the month and is selling various artworks until then. Anyone who has left behind a custom-framed print or image can contact Salituri”s home studio at 367-2934.
