Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
BUTTERED UP
Couple’s White House sculpture would melt in the mouth
Butter can make anything — even politics — palatable, right?
Although the 400 pounds of butter that the husband and wife sculpting team of Jim Victor and Marie Pelton used to carve a stunning replica of the White House has sacrificed its edible appeal for the sake of art, the pair gets to keep any leftover unused goods supplied by President Butter.
The makers of French artisan butter and cheeses had commissioned the couple famous for their butter sculptures for state and county fairs and other events to sculpt a White House for their social media campaign “A Tasteful Election.”
“They had done a few sculptures for us in the past, like the Eifel Tower, in butter and cheese,” explained Arden Kroetsch, President Butter’s marketing manager. “Our goal was to welcome the new president to the White House. It’s timely, and with the name of the product it was a perfect fit.”
In a refrigerated trailer at their Conshohocken home, Victor and Pelton, both graduates of the Sculpture Department of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, were hard at work on Friday morning, well into day four of their nonpartisan homage to the official residence and workplace of the President of the United States.
With the bones of the building solidly in place, their attention turned to the colonnades and intricate architectural facets.
“We don’t always necessarily work together,” said Victor, whose solo work includes chocolate portraits of Mickey Rooney and Ann Miller as a promotion for their Broadway play