Awards to Leaders in Private Space Travel Industry Get "Red Carpet" Design Treatment from Eileen Borgeson of E-Art Gallery

At the historic ORBIT Awards ceremony event, leaders in the emerging space tourism industry received special award sculptures designed by the world-recognized artist Eileen Borgeson in collaboration with holography pioneer, Jeff Allen. The ORBIT Awards ceremony was presented by the Space Tourism Society with the National Space Society (NSS) and kicked off the 25th annual International Space Development conference hosted by the NSS and The Planetary Society at the Sheraton Gateway LAX.

This year’s ORBIT Award honorees included Dr. Buzz Aldrin, Sir Richard Branson, Paul G. Allen, Col. Rick Searfoss, Robert Bigelow, The Ansari Family, Leonard David, Henry Vanderbilt, Tsuyoshi Saotome, Peter Wainwright plus, The X Prize Foundation, Zero Gravity Corporation and Scaled Composites. All received a beautiful optically clear and black faceted crystal, kinetic Holographic Beacons. The three private space travelers, Dennis Tito, Dr. Gregory Olsen and Mark Shuttleworth received their ‘Dennis Tito Award’, a stunning four-sculpture assemblage, with 3 silver Muses, topped with a 23k gold and deep purple ‘Muse of Flight’.

The Dennis Tito ORBIT Awards were sponsored and produced by E Art Gallery (www.eileenborgeson.com), Eileen’s art and licensing representative, and Saxton Industrial (www.saxtonindustrial.com), a 60-year custom manufacturer of high-end recognition awards who meticulously machined and manufactured the sculptures. The Holographic Orbit Awards were co-sponsored by E Art Gallery and Interior Systems (www.interiorsystems.com), a precision manufacturer of custom ceiling panels offering Eileen’s designs for the architectural art market.

"We all wanted to be a part of this 'launch pad' event for space tourism; designing and providing the awards was a way to do that," said Eileen and Allen. "The experience that you and I can have someday as private space travelers drives our own aspirations for serving the emerging space hospitality industry. Traditional architecture and design concepts have no precedence in this new arena. Artistic and technological expression can be implemented without past prejudices and rules, opening new vistas of post-planetary lifestyles. Finally…the future is here."

Eileen's sculptures have been commissioned and received by thousands of individuals, companies and organizations including B. B. King, Elton John, Aerosmith, the Dalai Lama, Hugh Hefner, Toyota, General Motors, Fox TV, Universal, Warner Brothers, and Disney. Each year, over a thousand of her Muse of Creativity sculptures are awarded during eight international recognition ceremonies.

She has collaborated with many other artists or their estates including John Lennon, Chuck Jones, Maxfield Parrish, and directly with the artist, Erté, considered the father of Art Deco, during his last seven years. An online gallery of her work is at www.EileenBorgeson.com.

Jeff Allen has produced hundreds of interactive holographic shows, early holographic movie art editions and has collaborated with Eileen on several of her holographic art pieces and installations. For more than 30 years, Allen has participated in many of holography’s major breakthroughs including diffractive optics, white-light view-ability, and mass-replication. The holograms on the VISA and MasterCard credit cards and National Geographic magazine covers are a direct outgrowth of some of these early efforts. The Holographic Crystal awards integrate this same technique. Information on Allen can be viewed at www.holographics.com.