Cal Lutheran art exhibit memorializes local student
According to the William Rolland Gallery of Fine Art website, Lucca Drake Aparicio was seeking a career as an artist or a curator. This exhibit offered the opportunity to view his work and tell stories about his life.
November 5, 2019
The William Rolland Gallery of Fine Art hosted a temporary memorial exhibit from Saturday, Oct. 26 to Saturday, Nov. 2 for the late artist Lucca Drake Aparicio, who took his own life shortly after graduating from Agoura High School.
This 24-piece display paid homage to Aparicio, whose friends, family and mentors described him as a light in their lives.
“I knew that my son had a little bit of that X factor. He didn’t have to say much, but people just gravitated towards him,” Lucca Drake Aparicio’s dad Ovidio Aparicio said.
Rachel Schmid, curator of collections and exhibitions, made this on-campus exhibit possible. As Schmid is on a four month leave, Interim Curator Marita Zerbe is curating the museum in her absence.
“[Schmid] arranged it with the family, and I did all the leg work. We went on studio visits, we had the canvas stretched, the paper works framed…out of the hundreds of works he did, we picked the 24 with the most meaning,” Zerbe said.
Zerbe said Lucca Drake Aparicio came to the campus gallery as a 16-year-old high school student and asked Schmid for a job. Since California Lutheran University doesn’t employ people that age, Schmid had to turn him down.
The gallery hosted a closing reception on Saturday, Nov. 2 at 6 p.m. where those who knew and loved Lucca Drake Aparicio gathered to celebrate his life and legacy.
“He would be really happy. I’m really happy to see it up because he worked so hard for this,” high school classmate and friend Lia Grinsell said.
Attendees walked through the gallery and observed abstract impressionist style paintings, drawings and multimedia works. The art ranged in size, color and materials.
Lucca Drake Aparicio’s high school English teacher Alexis Botton said she recognized Aparicio’s talent right away.
“Some of the stuff he was producing in class was just out of this world, he was just crazy talented,” Botton said.
His friends said his creativity was endless, and described how Aparicio left his mark everywhere he went.
“His art was graffitied places, on desks at our school, on computers. He used to take my lipsticks and paint with them,” said friend and classmate Amara Baker.
Those who attended the closing reception of the exhibit said the experience of seeing his art on display was healing and gratifying.
“It just makes you feel closer to him because this is what his whole entire life was about, this is what he wanted to do,” Lucca Drake Aparicio’s friend Olivia Aleks said.
Ovidio Aparicio said the experience was therapeutic for him. He said he enjoys being able to share how wonderful his son was with those who knew him, and hearing stories from people about the impact his son had on their lives.
“A lot of people feel that he helped them deal with life, or be an inspiration to just get up and keep going,” Ovidio Aparicio said.
Jessica Allen • Jul 5, 2020 at 5:29 pm
Today I came across your cross Lucca in the most beautiful place of Point Dume Beach your Energy forces Brought me to you’re alter. A white cross with a shoelace wrapped around the cross assuming it’s yours, 2 rocks hanging from the shoelace. A picture of you faded by the sun but I can still see your Angelic face. You’re name written on it Lucca Aparacio. A date dated April 27, 2019 The first Day of the rest of your eternal bliss Life,not to mention April 27 is my Birthday Automatically I was astonished and nevertheless As the sun was rising in the moon was setting And fading I felt that at this time and day today I was supposed to be no other place but next to you’re energy I was so curious to find out more about you but I had no service to google your name. I noticed a nearly empty bottle of Hennessy while I was sipping on my pink moscato I pour some for you and sat underneath the big Colorful rock with your name written all over it. I enjoyed the scenery watching the ocean crashing on the rocks below me. Right before I left I picked some yellow flowers and laid them next to your cross. When I finally got service on my phone I google you’re name after I left your side and came to find out you were a Great Young Artist which astonish me even more I am not an artist but I am a curator for my friend and he’s 84 years old he’s not doing so good as this coronavirus has kept him slave to his chair watching the bad news taking away his inspiration motivation to keep painting. Can’t even explain what I was feeling at that very moment it’s like as you were pointing me in an unknown location and yet you’ve never met me or never met you or maybe we have In the Previous life. As if you knew I needed a sign that I was on the right path. I am going to put my friends Williams Art and ask if we can show your art again I would love to see it in a same room nexts to my dear Friend William…. lol at the William Rolland Gallery of fine Art. Help me change the whole aspect of an Artis becoming famous after they passed. Why can’t my friend William fur fill his dreams as a well known Artist instead of the worlds most unknown artist as he calls him self… You have filled me with more inspiration! Thank you Lucca Aparacio until we meet again…….. Rest in Paradise