Eventually the fears were replaced by a bread-and-butter reality. (Yes, he's sculpted in both.)
"I wanted to make a living," Victor said. "I decided I'm going to take this seriously. I had no more delusions about art and artists."
Since then, Victor and the team at Jim Victor Food Sculpture - which includes Victor's wife, the sculptor Marie Pelton - have become nationally recognized leaders in an unusual field.
Victor and Pelton have made figures out of pasta, cheese, and chicken salad for companies including Subway and organizations such as the NFL Hall of Fame. They served as consultants on a forthcoming movie starring Jennifer Garner, and about a week ago they completed a chocolate sculpture of a new M&Ms character, Ms. Brown.
The newly introduced chief chocolate officer was featured in a commercial during the Super Bowl.
The 300-pound, bespectacled, high-heels-wearing chocolate version created mostly by Pelton was unveiled during a party Tuesday at a pop-up gallery in New York. The Soho space was turned into "the Museum of Chocolate Art" for the week that the sculpture was displayed, through Sunday.
When Victor decided to become a sculptor decades ago, he had no clue that one day his work would be edible.
He grew up near Harrisburg and entered the academy in the mid-1960s.
"I always wanted to be an artist, but I was always discouraged and told you won't make money," said Victor. "But there's this beacon in your head, and you just know what you want to do."
At the academy, Victor studied - and partied - with classmates including the movie director David Lynch and the production designer Jack Fisk, who later married the actress Sissy Spacek.
