Niles Inventor Explores Intersection of Art and Science

Videos and photos by Philip Downie; Text by Pam DeFiglio

Walk into Horacio Baggio's studio, and you see a riot of art. Paintings hang on the walls, cover the desk, peek out of files and take center stage on the drawing table in his Niles home.

Some, such as the view of Venice's Piazza San Marco at dawn, reflect Baggio's parents' roots in Italy or his birthplace in Argentina. Some also are works by the other artistic members of his family.

Tucked among the other materials, Baggio keeps a certificate that honors him for the 13 patents he earned for inventions related to hazardous location lighting. He conceived the inventions in his day job as an engineer for the former Woodhead Industries, in Northbrook, where he started in 1979, and Molex, in Lincolnshire, which bought Woodhead four years ago.  

So what does the engineering have to do with the art? Quite a bit.  

"It's like the ideal of a Renaissance person, like Leonardo [da Vinci]," he said. "You can be a designer, an artist, an engineer, a scientist...There's nothing you can't try."

Baggio's creativity expresses in mechanical things, such as his inventions and the model trains that fill his basement, and art, including his canvases and sketches.

The Da Vinci-esque intersection of art and science/engineering prompted his younger brother John to call Baggio a Renaissance man. Even Horacio's style of painting recalls that period, he said.

"He tends to lean toward the Renaissance, where it's very definite and very exact work," said John Baggio, also an artist and painter. Both brothers recently exhibited their works in an art show sponsored by the Italian Cultural Center in Stone Park.

They both tap into a talent that apparently runs in the family: their uncle Saverio Baggio, as well as John's two daughters, also paint, draw and sculpt.

Painting fills much of Horacio Baggio's evenings and weekends. Sometimes he puts on music and starts painting, and becomes so absorbed he doesn't look up until it's 2 a.m.

"Ideally, art could be my second career after I retire from engineering," said Baggio, 61. 

He'd like to use the additional time to get more serious about it. He did take two months off from his full-time job in 2000 to attend an art school in Florence, Italy, which gave him time to focus and improve his skills.

"Your art evolves," he explained. "You sort of have a goal, but it evolves."

Though he's painted a lot of landscapes, several images of trains and a few portraits, he feels he has more to explore.

Baggio realized how important art was to him when he developed cancer at age 30. The surgeons who operated on him encouraged him to enjoy life and spend his time doing something he really wanted to do. That something became art.  

"I haven't even found what I like yet. It's like dating," he said jokingly. "You just keep going."

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