While many Pennsylvanians might not immediately recognize the names of artists Jim Victor and Marie Pelton, more than a half million admire their work — a nearly thousand pound sculpture made of butter — at the Pennsylvania Farm Show each year. The couple will be speaking about what it takes to churn out such a work, as well as other adventures they’ve had as internationally lauded food sculptors, as part of the North Penn Arts Alliance (NPAA) monthly meeting at the Lansdale Library on Wednesday, October 3, at 7 p.m.
The husband and wife team graduated from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Jim attended 1963-68; Marie was there 1999-2003. Jim created his first food sculpture in the early 1980s when he was commissioned to do chocolate portraits of Mickey Rooney and Ann Miller as a promotion for their Broadway play, Sugar Babies. His first butter sculpture was completed for the Pennsylvania Farm Show in 1995. Marie began working with Jim in 2000 and have since traveled together throughout the U.S and abroad, creating various spectacles from food. Besides food sculpture, the two have done numerous commissions in bronze, steel, cast stone, and resin.
The October 3 presentation, which is free and open to the public, is part of the monthly speaker series hosted by the North Penn Arts Alliance at the Lansdale Library on the first Wednesday of the month. The NPAA also offers exhibits, shows, and classes for children and adults through the North Penn School District’s Community Education program and at the Community Center at St. Luke’s Church in North Wales.
North Penn Arts Alliance 