LAKEPORT, Calif. – Lakeport's Inspirations Fine Arts Gallery is closing its doors.

Owner and artist Gail Salituri said she will shutter the gallery and frame shop, located at 165 N. Main St., at month's end.

Salituri said the charming Victorian-style building – filled with art and memories – is very difficult to leave.

The business has provided a “14-year span of creativity, fun, sorrow, friends and clients,” Salituri said.

“I could have stayed, but I'm moving on into different directions,” she said, adding the decision has been difficult.

During that 14 years Salituri also endured the death of her good friend, Barbara LaForge, who was murdered in the frame shop in October 2002. The murder remains Lakeport's only unsolved homicide.

“The challenges of dealing with the tragic events regarding my friend Barbara LaForge’s murder have always been an emotional difficulty for me while remaining in this location, Salituri said. “I continually hope life, fate and the Lakeport Police Department one day reveal the answers to the constant and lingering questions of who took her life.”

She said the unsolved mystery is a great disappointment and frustration for her, but added that from it she's developed a mystery novel that she intends to finish and publish in the future.

Several years ago Salituri created the Barbara LaForge memorial to raise funds for the Freedom House, the county's domestic violence shelter.

She said she received the assistance and support of many people in that effort, and she found herself appointed to the Lake Family Resource Center Board of Directors, where she said she hopes to positively impact the center and those who pass through the shelter.

Inspirations Gallery and frame shop will now move online, with Salituri seeing opportunities to reach clients worldwide along with reopening her home studio in Kelseyville.

“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,” she said.

Main Line Art and Design recently contacted Salituri for her vineyard and wine country art creations, along with commission pieces for several wineries in the works.

Salituri’s work is currently exhibited in the Lee Youngman Gallery in Calistoga.

Salituri is looking forward to what she calls “semi retirement,” which along with writing and painting will include time with her 16-month-old granddaughter.

She said Inspirations Gallery has been a wonderful and successful venture, and one that she'll miss very much.

“All my wonderful clients who have keep our gallery in business my heartfelt 'thank you' for your patronage,” she said.

The gallery is scheduled to close at the end of February and currently is selling various artworks until then.

If for some reason anyone has left behind a custom framed print or image, please contact Salituri’s home studio at 707-367-2934.

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