Painting of a Palm Bay artist who orbited the Earth aboard the SpaceX Inspiration4 mission
As a budding young artist at Riviera Elementary in Palm Bay, Jonlouis Gonzalez remembers going to the kickball field to watch rocket and space shuttle launches fly across the sky from Cape Canaveral.
Now 27, Gonzalez is a staple of “space art†on Miami’s contemporary art scene. And one of his colorful paintings of two dancing astronauts flew into orbit aboard Inspiration4, SpaceX’s historic all-civilian orbital mission in September.
Gonzalez’s painting, “Embrace II”, is one of a variety of space-inspired items auctioned Monday morning by Charitybuzz. Profits will be donated to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
“I think it’s a really huge feeling. Because our whole career is really about creating impact. And having this moment of global impact is getting closer to our goal – we want to reach as many people as possible with it. our art, â€says Gonzalez.
“It also opens my eyes to how far I can really go,” he said.
“I watch this moment and kiss it. But then I look further too, like what can we do next?” he said.
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The painting is estimated to be worth $ 2,500 and the 10-day online auction ends November 10.
Inspiration4 took to the skies on September 15 from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center with an all-civilian crew: billionaire and mission commander Jared Isaacman; Sian Proctor, who became the first black woman to pilot a spaceship; St. Jude Hayley Arceneaux’s physician assistant; and Lockheed Martin engineer Chris Sembroski.
Proctor met Gonzalez and discovered his artwork at the KSC Visitor Complex during the establishment’s Yuri’s Night Space Coast 2019 party. Yuri’s Night is an annual global event in honor of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who became the first person to orbit the Earth aboard Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961.
“I followed him on Instagram and I was always like, ‘Wow, I love his job.’ So when I knew I was going to go upstairs and that I could take stuff with me, I reached out to him and asked him for two paintings, â€said Proctor.
“He’s awesome. He’s so talented. It was obvious for me to contact him and say, ‘I want to take your art to space with me,'” she said.
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Inspiration4’s fundraising efforts for St. Jude’s exceeded $ 239 million, exceeding the mission’s goal of $ 200 million. Isaacman, who founded Shift4 Payments, pledged $ 100 million of that amount. SpaceX founder Elon Musk has pledged $ 50 million.
“It means the world to all of us, me and my crew, to know that we have truly resonated with the world with the Inspiration4 mission. And how many people have come together behind us to support this effort to end childhood cancer. “said Proctor.
Other Inspiration4 payload items offered on Monday by Charitybuzz include a tailored jacket, Sun glasses, toys from the animated series “Space Racers”, and an autographed copy of Douglas Adams’ science fiction novel “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”.
“Once the crew returned safely and successfully, there was quite a bit of merchandise, memorabilia, artwork, etc. that were and will continue to be auctioned off, all to support St. Jude’s, â€said Charitybuzz President Ben Erwin.
A spokesperson for St. Jude said hospital officials were not available to comment on the fundraising campaign.
Charitybuzz also leads an auction for Proctor’s metal marker work of art “Seeker”. This piece traveled under the sea to the bottom of the Mariana Trench with private astronaut Richard Garriott and the wreckage of the Titanic with space shuttle astronaut Scott Parazynski. Then she put it into orbit aboard the Crew Dragon capsule.
“I call it the art of adventure: an art that has traveled to extreme and remote places where hardly any human has gone before,†said Proctor.
“How many works of art will go again to these three places in history? ” she asked.
Proceeds from the sale of “Seeker†will benefit St. Jude’s. Charitybuzz indicates its estimated value at $ 25,000.
The “Seeker” online auction ends Friday at noon. The best deals will be submitted during a live event Saturday at Charles Krug Winery in Napa Valley, California.
Proctor took two of Gonzalez’s paintings to space. She donates “Embrace II” to St. Jude’s and keeps the other in her home in Arizona.
Gonzalez is a 2012 Palm Bay Magnet High graduate who also attended Stone Magnet Middle School.
He typically works on his space-themed paintings for two five-hour shifts a day, using spray paint, watercolors, and oil sticks. His work has been exhibited at the KSC Visitor Complex and in Miami, New York, Dallas and Washington, DC
In late September, Gonzalez traveled to Utah and visited Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, and other desert locations to study the textures and tones of rocks, sand, and terrain resembling March to find a future painting for a collector.
Gonzalez bought a second home in Palm Bay in September, but he plans to postpone furnishing the home until the end of Art Basel in early December in Miami Beach. He hopes to open an art gallery on the Space Coast.
Billed as the world’s first fully civilian orbital mission, Inspiration4 was featured in the Netflix docuseries “Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space”.
Next, SpaceX’s Crew-3 mission, which will send four astronauts for a six-month mission to the International Space Station, is expected to launch at 1:10 a.m. on Wednesday from KSC.
Crew-3 was originally scheduled to take off on Halloween, but SpaceX and NASA officials have postponed the launch due to poor weather conditions over the Atlantic Ocean.
Rick Neale is the South Brevard Watchdog reporter at FLORIDA TODAY (For more of his stories, click here.) Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or [email protected]. Twitter: @ RickNeale1
