Victoria Moore (b.1956-) is a native of California. Her first solo exhibition of figurative paintings was in the San Francisco Bay Area at 21. Exhibiting mostly in FL and NYC through the 90’s, including ArtExpo NY. Victoria’s willingness, perhaps preference, to go outside her own comfort zone has kept her work dynamic and in constant motion. With several bodies of work emerging, she became a member of The Academy of Fine Art Foundation, Women’s Caucus for the Arts and a founding member of the National Museum of Women in The Arts.
Always visually stylistic, Victoria does not try to stay “relevant” by outsmarting the viewer with intellectually elitist works, she does the opposite, assuming her audience’s intelligence. Her early career as a technical illustrator contracted to many of Silicon Valley’s most innovative corporations helps enable her to tap into the current zeitgeist of the moment and create something truly timeless from it. Over the last four decades, the evolution of her paintings has pushed the boundaries of what it means to be both esthetic and emotional.
As a painter she invokes many elements of renaissance, classical and romantic styles and infuses the symmetry and of Alphonse Mucha and Erte, who she admits, are some of many influences. Stylistically, she often blends old school with new, the past with the present. Receiving an international award serving a multi-year post as State Ambassador with Portrait Society of America where peers admired her infusions of surrealism in her portraiture.
Two paintings from “Holes in the Sky” series were personally selected by the Deputy Director, Lieutenant Colonel Donald S. Lopez in 2007 for the permanent collection of The Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum: Washington D.C. on the Capitol Mall and Udvar Hazy, Reston, VA.
At international conferences she received People’s Choice and First Place awards, including Tori Amos as Alice in Wonderland in “Between Two Worlds,” subsequently selected for the cover of Tori’s 2010 calendar. Diagnosed with two types of cancers in 2015, Victoria returned to California for treatment. By 2018 over 150 paintings now reside in private collections worldwide, including the honor of becoming the first living artist to be acquired by an international art asset acquisition holding company. When you take the totality of her various collections you begin to see the thread that ties these seemingly disconnected bodies of work together.
As the Atomic Babylon Collection emerged, UNESCO recognition and exhibition in San Diego preceded the Smithsonian National Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada adding two paintings to their collection on the day National Veterans Day was established in 2021. Between 2021-2023, the National Assn. of Atomic Veterans presented three US Marshallese Embassies with limited edition reproductions of “Unintended Consequences” following an acquisition by the National Alele Museum, Majuro Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands.
With painting as part of her healing process, 2024 is bringing new editions to established collections with “Still Glowing: The Nuclear Family Tree” introduces nuclear energy for the first time in the Atomic Babylon Collection and the emergence of “Genetica” while exploring neural circuit mapping research, augmented relaity and creativity.
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ARTIST STATEMENT
To begin from the void of blank canvas and create substance always elevates me. Capturing an image or a concept and suspending it in your mind is a provocative endeavor. When the spark of a moment has passed and the memory is all that remains, to breathe life into it again invokes the balancing of opposing forces; discipline and the creative spirit. The canvas transforms, becoming an often intimate, permanent record and timeless home. Looking back on over a few decades, several bodies of work and over 350 paintings, I can’t escape the patterns of personal and private interests that beckon my brush and keep me coming back to the easel. Creating is a sublime gift, and in each painting, I can create a stumbling block or a stepping stone, whichever results, it remains a statement that will outlive me. If ‘myth’ is defined as having only an imaginary and unverifiable existence, and surrealism seeks to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind, then I hope to leave evidence that these concepts move beyond that and are more relevant now as they continue to intrigue, enlighten and inspire for generations to come. |
“My crazy atomic life seemed normal to me, but I can’t imagine not knowing the truth about my Atomic Heritage. Knowing the extent of it has influenced almost every major life decision. I feel obligated to help others explore its dimensional genetic impacts and improve options for others like me.”
Fascinating research was required to connect dots and discover truths. MyAtomicLife.com evolved over 10 years as a way to inform The Chief’s son and family of his extensive Atomic Naval career. It includes photos, medical info, Naval activity in the Joint Task Force theaters and important resources gathered in the process of investigating the situation of Children of Atomic Veterans in the U.S. and worldwide impacts to the generations to follow.
I’ve never worn a uniform, yet I’ve served at the pleasure of the U.S. Government since birth.My atomic life is an unintended consequence of unknowing participant subject in the U.S. Government’s Human Radiologic Experiments [HRE} has turned out to be more bizarre than I could have ever dreamed it to be, and I have a pretty vivid imagination.I always knew my father’s work was above Top Secret, but at age 12 I learned my fate had been sealed before birth.
The initial 500 page manuscript was written at two points in time. 250 pages were written around 2007-08, when I became aware of RECA (Radiation Exposure Compensation Act) and been gathering records to file a claim on my deceased father's behalf. I began documenting the experience since it was so surreal. Additionally it was my way of helping inform my brother and his son, the Chief's only male decendents to understand why we hid the truth from him for over 40 years. While I tried to document the discovery process and what fascinating anf frighhtening information was coming forth, I had held the Chief's secrets tightly, even 20 years after tmy parents death, but until filing the RECA claim, he was not in a "Need to know" position. I was groomed well for silence.
Fascinating research was required to connect dots and discover truths. MyAtomicLife.com evolved over 10 years as a way to inform The Chief’s son and family of his extensive Atomic Naval career. It includes photos, medical info, Naval activity in the Joint Task Force theaters and important resources gathered in the process of investigating the situation of Children of Atomic Veterans in the U.S. and worldwide impacts to the generations to follow.
I’ve never worn a uniform, yet I’ve served at the pleasure of the U.S. Government since birth.My atomic life is an unintended consequence of unknowing participant subject in the U.S. Government’s Human Radiologic Experiments [HRE} has turned out to be more bizarre than I could have ever dreamed it to be, and I have a pretty vivid imagination.I always knew my father’s work was above Top Secret, but at age 12 I learned my fate had been sealed before birth.
The initial 500 page manuscript was written at two points in time. 250 pages were written around 2007-08, when I became aware of RECA (Radiation Exposure Compensation Act) and been gathering records to file a claim on my deceased father's behalf. I began documenting the experience since it was so surreal. Additionally it was my way of helping inform my brother and his son, the Chief's only male decendents to understand why we hid the truth from him for over 40 years. While I tried to document the discovery process and what fascinating anf frighhtening information was coming forth, I had held the Chief's secrets tightly, even 20 years after tmy parents death, but until filing the RECA claim, he was not in a "Need to know" position. I was groomed well for silence.
The next 250 pages came as lay in hospital beds at Stanfor, one stint for almost 40 days, fighting radiogneicly induced cancers, I was told to expect at the age of twelve, by Naval medical officers at Oak Knoll Naval Hospital. From that day forward, nothing was ever the same again. Advised now to break this into the three storylines, The manuscript is currently being broken out into a trilogy.
Every facet of Victoria’s life has been impacted and it is revealed in her paintings, which grace the permanent collection of RMI National Museum and two of their US Embassies and two The Smithsonian Museums. Victoria uses her art to raise awareness and her voice, documenting her life, as a cautionary tale, in ‘My Atomic Babylon’.
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Victoria Moore is the genetically modified offspring (GMO) of a highly decorated and exposed US Naval Officer on the PPG Command Ship designed for the tests. The USS ESTES served the Marshall Islands from 1951-62. Stationed at the Joint Task Forces command center on Treasure Island in San Francisco known as Atomic Central. Her father, The Chief, was a well documented part of the U.S. Human Radiologic Experiments (HRE). Conceived after OP IVY & BRAVO, Victoria was presumptive for genetic damage and treated as a high-risk pregnancy and birth by medical personnel at San Diego Naval Base’s Balboa Hospital.
Uniquely made aware of her genetic misfortune at age 12 (1968) by The Gold Team, exclusive use of Naval medical facilities would be required as the family now fell under The Chief’s “Q Clearance” for the sake of research and his treatment needs. The Chief’s ‘penilectomy’ in 1975, followed by her full hysterectomy in 1978, clearly demonstrated quickly manifesting hereditary challenges and the first horrifying disfigurement The Chief would endure. bandoned at 21 and left to fend for herself in civilian medical care, unable to discuss her situation, without violating clearances, complicated and compromised her ability to seek proper treatment with qualified informed providers. “I’ve come to realize my situation seems to be quite rare. The Chief was a tracked, treated and lifelong labrat in U.S. Human Radiologic Experiments from 1951 until his death in 1989. Yet, I feel fortunate. I was given this critical information, and it changed how I lived my life. What motivates me? This and future generations need resources and options to protect and empower themselves and their families.” 
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As an activist, Victoria cofounded ChildrenofAtomicVeterans.org (CAV) with Kathy Sinai in response to an ongoing lack of resources for the descendants of ionizing radiation exposed veterans and civilians. The Mission of CAV is to improve awareness, access and outcomes for Atomic Veterans worldwide, their families and the communities impacted by ionizing radiation and support associated genetic research projects. The lack of generational tracking and follow up has led Victoria to expand her vision towards global solutions for both the weapons and energy sectors where exposures occur and descendants seek informative resources.
Accessible iR testing would allow people who have knowledge of a radioactive event in their family line but no details, to gain valuable medical results that can influence major life decisions. Only the sciences can help us untangle their ultimate entanglement.
Accessible iR testing would allow people who have knowledge of a radioactive event in their family line but no details, to gain valuable medical results that can influence major life decisions. Only the sciences can help us untangle their ultimate entanglement.
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First Commissioned Portrait: 1972
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1st Atomic reference to reproduction impacts in a painting circa 1976
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3rd Month |
Month 6 |
Month 9 |
Month 12 |
Chakra Imaging |
