Cedar Glen community honors Lauri Carleton

By JULIANNE HOMOKAY

Special to the Alpine Mountaineer

 

On Friday, Aug. 18, 2023, the tiny community of Cedar Glen was shaken to its core when prominent business owner Laura Ann Carleton, known as Lauri, was gunned down by a man who vandalized the Pride flag she hung in front of Mag.Pi, her clothing boutique (Alpine Mountaineer dated Aug. 26, 2023.)

This month, her friend Robin Lyles, proprietor of the home goods store The Lake House, situated a few doors down from Mag.Pi, has been hard at work offering events to bring the community together to honor Carleton’s memory.

The first event was part of a series that is a familiar and popular staple on the mountain’s summer arts calendar: First Fridays. All of these events feature the work of selected artists and benefit mountain charities. Lyles dedicated Aug. 2 First Friday to the Lauri Carleton Memorial Fund. As Carleton was a “fierce advocate for love, equality, and human rights,” the Fund was created in her honor to “keep her spirit alive by supporting local and inclusive community-building initiatives” (lakearrowheadlgbtq.org/lauri-carleton-memorial-fund/).

 

The first artist featured on Aug. 2 was landscape painter Laura Wambsgans, who shares Carleton’s professed love for travel. She’ll commonly band together with other artists who will travel somewhere beautiful they’ve never been before to paint. Her main goal is to “capture the effect of light on the land,” as evidenced in one of her favorite creations, “Golden Season.” She hopes that when the viewer takes in one of her paintings, “they’ll feel what it was like to be at that exact spot at that time of day,” she said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scott Pryde, an artist who has been local on and off since 1995, was the second featured artist. While Lyles always donates 10 percent of First Friday proceeds to charity, one of Pryde’s works will benefit the Carleton Fund 100 per cent – a rendering of a boat that Carleton had owned. He completed the original painting last summer and recreated it in a series of giclees for this year’s First Friday.

Pryde’s connection to this work is personal: He and his partner were close friends with Carleton and her husband. “We were out on the boat for the day,” he said, “so I did it for the show,” last year’s Aug. 4 First Friday, two weeks before Carleton’s death. The giclees will be available at The Lake House on an ongoing basis, the proceeds continuing to benefit the Carleton Fund.

Community enthusiasm for the cause was evident on Aug. 2, as art patrons packed The Lake House in support of both artists.

 

But raising money for the Lauri Carleton Memorial Fund is not the only way Lyles is honoring the memory of her friend. She has been hard at work creating a garden in Carleton’s honor in the heart of Cedar Glen. On Aug. 4 at 9 a.m., over a dozen people showed up to join her in that effort and begin planting.

Lyles began by welcoming the community members: “There’s a lot of Lauri love here today.” She updated the crowd on the garden’s progress, including plans for a fountain, signage and a dog park. Shortly after she introduced Victoria Wood, a landscape contractor who was on hand for gardening questions, participants grabbed gloves and trowels, and headed to one of the newly built oblong planters to dig in the dirt.

Community support was evident not only in the number of volunteers, but also in the businesses that donated supplies to the effort. Cedar Glen Fine Foods had refreshments on hand for the volunteers; Barebones, a gardening supply company, provided gloves; and Four Seasons Landscape and Garden Center of Lake Arrowhead donated all the plants going into the ground that day, which Lyles seemed quite touched by and expressed gratitude for.

Lyles hopes to have the Lauri Carleton Memorial Garden completed by the anniversary of Carleton’s death on Aug. 18. Even if she doesn’t quite make it, the garden already means a lot to the community. “I wanted to be a part of this community, to be so kind and thoughtful – it makes my heart feel joy,” said volunteer Lynne Wilson. Said Wood, “[Carleton] meant something to me, the friendliness to the gay community.”

“I feel like because there was never a public celebration of life for Lauri,” said Lyles, “I’m trying to create a place to come and talk to Lauri. We had grand plans for the Glen. We were kindred spirits.”

As if on cue, bees and hummingbirds swarmed to the young plants, barely in the ground.