by: Mary Quinn '10
Who else but Jim Victor would know what to do when handed 600 lbs of butter?
For those of you who don’t have an idea how much butter that really is, according to information outside the butter sculpture at the Big E, to make 600 lbs of butter, it takes 12600 lbs of milk and with it you could butter 19200 pancakes. You can pick your jaw up off the floor now.
The word butter is Greek for cow cheese, but to Jim Victor it means 10 days of hard work, dedication and a creative mind. Victor has been sculpting the famous 600 lb butter sculpture, found outside the Mallary building at the Big E fair, for 14 years. Over the years his sculptures have ranged from people, automobiles, to this year’s classic “New England Dairy Landscape” which depicts cows on a hill in a country setting.
Victor is a sculptor from Philadelphia who has over 30 years of experience. He normally works with clay, wood and bronze but says that he enjoys working with butter for a change. The unique media does not end there; Victor also works with all sorts of foods, such as cheese, chocolate, fruits, vegetables, and even carved Christopher Columbus’s three ships out of pizza for a Columbus Day parade in New York. His work can be found at state fairs, festivals and parades all over the country. Some of his more traditional media pieces, like his bronze works, have been displayed in The New York Times and at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library in Atlanta, Georgia.
Victor describes the process of sculpting with butter as “practice” because unlike his other pieces, once he is finished, the sculpture is destroyed. To form cows, houses and anything he designs, Victor first builds a simple steel structure then sculpts around it with the butter. This is necessary to keep the figures sturdy and in place. Victor uses modeling tools, mostly wood, some metal, to create his work. To ensure the butter does not melt, his work is built and presented in a large showcase set at 55 degrees. The showcase is designed with glass windows all around it so that as he works, the crowd can view in wonder as he pieces together a creation you can almost touch.
Whether Jim Victor is in Pennsylvania, California, or right here at our very own Big E, his work will always inspire and awe any crowd. After all, how many people do you know who can build just about anything out of butter?