BIOGRAPHY
Victor Arellano was born in San Lucas, Michoacan in the Tierra Caliente region where the states of Mexico, Michoacan and Guerrero form a very distinct geographic and cultural area. Growing up Victor would help his family earn a living by performing farming and ranching activities. After arriving in the United States at age 17, Victor worked as a drywall hanger in the construction industry for 4.5 years before eventually earning undergraduate degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from U. C. Berkeley and a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA. Victor’s art is a combination of his passion for science and technology and his interest in art’s power to convey emotions, messages and conceptual ideas.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Growing up in a small town with a very homogenous mentality and idiosyncrasies, Victor started to experience a different world when he attended middle school in a slightly bigger town than where he grew up and, later, when he moved to Morelia, the state capital of Michoacan to attend high school and his first year of college. These cultural differences became even more pronounced after moving to Sacramento, CA. The cultural differences he experienced morphed into a culture shock after moving to Berkeley, CA to complete his undergraduate studies. After moving to Syracuse, NY for a work assignment, he realized that he was not the only one experiencing cultural shocks as he noticed many local people were feeling alienated by the many cultural changes happening all around them. Victor believes that these cultural shocks culminated with the assault on the US Capitol in January 6, 2021. As a result of this realization, Victor hopes that his art will serve as a conversation starter where people from different backgrounds will see an opportunity to find common ground among all the differences that make each one of us unique. Just like the laws of nature are common everywhere in the universe, there are principles that unite all of humanity regardless of the perspectives each of us have.