PLANTATION, Fla. – Lisa Botto Lee is a South Florida-based artist whose work will make it to the moon.
She is the fifth generation of artists in her family and has painted countless portraits over the years, but the piece that made history was “Beyond The Window.”
She painted the portrait of a woman who worked as a nail technician. It was done during the beginning of the pandemic that caught the eye of a contest’s judges.
“I’ve been painting my whole life, and drawing my whole life, and this, what’s happening, I never thought would happen,” Botto Lee, who lives in Plantation, said.
She had heard about the international contest back in 2020, and after she decided to submit her entry, the portrait was selected among applicants from all over the world.
“It was very competitive, through the platform of poets and artists, and the theme call was ‘Shelter’ in direct response to the global pandemic, and I had asked my nail tech to pose for me and she graciously accepted.”
The winners are included in the Lunar Codex, a curated archive of contemporary culture in nano-fiche, digitized memory cards placed in time capsules, and launched to the moon via NASA Artemis.
The time capsules are meant to create a lasting record of human creativity.
“I was over the moon! It was so exciting. I couldn’t even believe it. I didn’t even know it was a thing.”
The launch is set for Valentine’s Day at Cape Canaveral.