In the 1970s, Lamar University’s art department was relatively small. The artists and faculty were like a family, artist Mike Cacioppo said. When the Beaumont Art League offered him the chance to host a show, Cacioppo knew he wanted to recapture the artistic spirit of the time, especially as the university is celebrating its centenary.
“Mike Cacioppo & Lamar Legends” will open with a free reception, 2 to 4 p.m., Dec. 10, in BAL’s Spurlock Gallery. The exhibition will feature works by 12 of Cacioppo’s contemporaries and six faculty members.
“For this particular show, my idea is, hopefully, it’s going to be a celebration of art, but also a celebration of the artists that were produced in the 1970s,” Cacioppo said.
Cacioppo, who graduated with a degree in studio art in 1977, said there was a do-it-yourself attitude among the artists. The senior thesis show was traditionally held in the lobby of the University Theatre as it would be another six years before the Dishman Art Museum would open.
Cacioppo, along with Rosemary Mathis and Igalious Mills, the other graduating seniors, decided they wanted a more elegant setting. The Gray Library has just opened, and the trio decided to put on a show in the eighth-floor reception area. The artists displayed 60 pieces between them, and they did everything themselves, from the invitations to the refreshments.
“It was a great place to have a show,” Cacioppo said. “It was a wonderful day. All these wonderful people came, and we had we had a great time. I’m hoping this will be the same thing.”
Mathis pulled out a picture from the university newspaper from the reception.
“I still have that picture right there hanging in my house,” she said.
Cacioppo and Mathis both took time away from making art. Mathis got married shortly after graduation.
“I had three kids in four years and art was out the window, and then I started teaching full time to boot,” she said.
Mathis is a retired ESL teacher, and even though she wasn’t producing art, she said her degree was helpful in the classroom.
“We used a lot in the classroom because they don’t have (written) language in kindergarten,” she said. “We use art as a means of conveying what their thoughts are.”
After she retired in June 2021, Mathis visited her my youngest daughter in Kentucky who had written a book to teach children Spanish.
“She was doing her own illustrations and she said, ‘Mommy, paint with me,” Mathis said. “I went, ‘I don’t know how anymore. I don’t remember.’ She said, ‘Sure, Mom, you can do this.’ So, she made me sit down and paint with her and it kind of started coming in.”
Cacioppo earned a second degree in geography/urban planning and worked for the city. But when the economy took a downturn in the early 1980s, he was laid off and spent the next three decades in retail which left no time for art.
But he never turned his back on the area art scene, visiting all the local galleries whenever there was a show. And he credits Lynne Lokensgard, his college art history professor and long-time director of the Dishman Art Museum, for including him on trips to galleries in Houston.
“It was just fantastic,” he said. “Anytime when said she was going (I said) I’m there, because we got to do all these fun things,” he said.
Lokensgard remembers her first meeting with Cacioppo.
“I was giving an exam, and I use blue books,” she said. “It was a night class, and I gave my test. Everyone turned in their blue books and I went home. And then there’s a guy knocking on the door, and it was him. He said he forgot to turn in his blue book. I just looked at him and I thought, ‘I trust him and he’s an honest person.’ So, that’s how I remember him.”
Lokensgard will include some of her photographs in the show. She taught photography and worked in 35mm film. She especially loved working in the darkroom, she said.
“When technology changed (to digital), I was lost, so I quit doing it,” she said. “I have found six photographs, so that’s what I’ve got.”
Cacioppo will exhibit recent watercolors in the show, and Mathis will also have new work. But there will be a variety of media from different eras. Cacioppo has rounded up works from artists who are still alive and donations from those who are no longer alive.
“(If) you’re going to attend the show you’re going to love it, because you’re going to see such a variety of good art,” he said.
Lokensgard immediately switched into professor mode, still encouraging people to engage with art.
“I think that there are a lot of people who don’t realize how important it is to have art in their life,” she said. “And they need to go to exhibitions, and they need to see that they are connected with these artists.”
Former students included in the exhibition are Linnis Blanton, Sandra Laurette, Greg Busceme, Jamie Paul Kessler, Albert Faggard Sam Daleo, Art Nations, Curtis Black, Joey Blazek, Jeff McManus, Igalious Mills, Mathis and Cacioppo. Faculty represented are Robert Madden, Robert O’Neill, Robert Rogan, Jerry Newman, Conn Trussell and Lokensgard.
After so many years, Cacioppo’s passion for art is still as bright as when they were young artists.
“You already know it wasn’t a straight line for me,” he said. “I never got to use that degree, formally anyway. But I was always enjoying seeing other people’s art and being important in my life. The lesson would be that if it’s in you, it’s going to come out of you eventually — it did for me.”
The Beaumont Art League is located at 2675 Gulf St. For more, visit beaumontartleague.us.
