E. Lee Wilson, Jr. returned to Spacefest in August for a second year to exhibit his Cosmos artwork. Spacefest X was the 10th year that this event has been held, and was the largest in both artist exhibits and in general attendance to date. The show is run by Novaspace, which also sells space art and astronaut memorabilia online.
This year Lee rented a large van and drove 2000 miles, from the Tampa Bay area in Florida, all the way to Tucson, Arizona, passing through Houston, Texas on the way. He was able to bring many large paintings that would have been too expensive to ship to the event.
Here is a shot of the initial display for Spacefest X.
Due to his active presence on Facebook, the first painting sold before it was even displayed at the show! It was purchased by a collector from Hawaii who had seen a similar piece at Spacefest last year, but had not made the decision to buy before someone from Switzerland snapped it up first. This year when he saw the new painting on one of Lee's Facebook posts, he asked for first dibs and plucked down a deposit to hold it for the show.
You never know who you're going to meet at Spacefest! This year Lee had the distinct honor to show his lunar painting "Six Giant Leaps" to Rick Armstrong, son of Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon!
Lee was very lucky to have some expert help with his exhibit space at the show. Linda did a great job of representing his work when he had to be away. Thank you Linda!
It was so much fun to see the cosplay folks walking around. They had some of the most creative space-themed "costumes" out there.
As a final surprise on the last day of the show, at the very end of the day, who came by to see Lee's work but the amazing Geoff Notkin, co-host of the TV show "Meteorite Men" and president of The National Space Society. Lee is looking forward to working with him on future projects.
Overall, Spacefest X was a fabulous and successful event! Lee will definitely be back in 2020 for Spacefest XI.
More information about this event at Spacefest.info
