I grew up in Central Pennsylvania and attended Public and Catholic parochial Schools. In High School I won a competitive one year scholarship to York Academy of Arts in York, PA. The following year I decided to apply to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, PA. I was able to pay the first semester tuition which was $250 but did not have funds for the 2nd semester. Before I left to go home for Christmas I was informed that I had received a special scholarship for the 2nd semester. I switched from painting to a sculpture major in my 2nd year and stayed at PAFA until I won a Cresson European Traveling Scholarship in 1967 and traveled through Europe that summer.
After PAFA I worked for a year at the University of Pennsylvania Museum in their casting department where we made reproductions of pieces in the Museum’s collections. In 1969 I spent two years doing alternative service with a social service organization called Students Concerned with Public Health and the Get Set Program in Philadelphia. After my service I traveled to Europe and North Africa for several months.
Upon my return I began teaching figurative sculpture at a variety of Art Centers and began doing sculpture portraits as illustrations for various newspapers and magazines. New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Magazine, New York Magazine were some of my customers.
Doing sculpture portraits led me into the world of food sculpture. Around 1981 I was approached by one of my students at Rosemont College where I was teaching sculpture. She wanted to tell me about an opportunity to do chocolate sculpture portraits of Mickey Rooney and Anne Miller as a PR stunt for “Sugar Babies”, a Broadway show celebrating its 1000th performance.
It was my first of many chocolate sculptures. In 1995 I answered a want ad in a Harrisburg, PA newspaper that was seeking a “Butter Sculptor”. I got the job making a butter sculpture for the Pennsylvania Farm Show. That’s when butter and chocolate combined to make Jim Victor Food Sculpture and ultimately Jim Victor and Marie Pelton Food Sculpture when my wife and sculpture partner, Marie Pelton, joined me on our food sculpting journey around 2000.
Besides the Food Sculpture I spent many years teaching Sculpture at Rosemont College, PAFA, Fleisher Art Memorial, and Drexel university in Philadelphia. I’ve also done bronze sculpture commissions for UFCWU, Hahnemann Medical University, AFSCME, Rosemont College, Albright College, Drexel University and several One Percent for Art commissions in Philadelphia. From 1994 to 1999 I was a roster artist for Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. During that period I did at least 13 different residencies in Pennsylvania and New Jersey public and private schools. I also did workshops at the Whitemarsh Art Center and Philadelphia Museum of Art.