{"id":12464,"date":"2017-12-05T02:57:37","date_gmt":"2017-12-05T02:57:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/victorhugocollection.com\/?p=12464"},"modified":"2019-09-23T05:34:51","modified_gmt":"2019-09-23T05:34:51","slug":"usa-today-network-artist-victor-hugo-vaca-ii-creates-a-diary-of-the-world-on-canvas-between-the-famous-name-the-naval-academy-crackhead-jesus-and-pink-floyd-this-story-has-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhugocollection.com\/usa-today-network-artist-victor-hugo-vaca-ii-creates-a-diary-of-the-world-on-canvas-between-the-famous-name-the-naval-academy-crackhead-jesus-and-pink-floyd-this-story-has-everything\/","title":{"rendered":"USA TODAY NETWORK Artist Victor Hugo Vaca II Creates A Diary Of The World On Canvas Between the famous name the Naval Academy Crackhead Jesus and Pink Floyd this story has everything"},"content":{"rendered":"
Those are just a few of the words that can be used to describe Victor-Hugo Vaca Jr. Also, lucky in a way.<\/p>\n
Vaca\u00a0was born with the same name as the author of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and “Les Miserables.” That\u00a0means that every day, hundreds of people across the globe accidentally stumble across his website.<\/p>\n
He doesn\u2019t take that for granted.\u00a0Vaca uses his art to capture current events in a movement he has dubbed \u201cmodern-art-gonzo-journalism.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m creating a diary of the world on canvas,\u201d he said, \u201cand I\u2019m telling stories that the mainstream media can\u2019t or doesn\u2019t want to tell.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although his work takes him all over\u00a0the world, Vaca\u00a0has a special place in his heart for Southwest Florida. He owns an apartment in Bonita Springs and participates in Marco Island\u2019s annual Wet Paint Live fundraising event.<\/p>\n
For this year\u2019s Wet Paint Live last month, Vaca\u00a0painted positive Chinese symbols as\u00a0part of yet another one of his missions.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur country is pivoting toward Asia, and my website gets a lot of traffic from China,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I want to paint welcoming messages and let them know that we\u2019re a friendly country.”<\/p>\n
Vaca\u2019s passion for art began in an unlikely place: the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. The academy has a way of figuring out a person\u2019s latent talents, Vaca said, and for him, that talent was art.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know how they were able to tell that I had this artistic talent, but they did, and soon I was painting banners for football games, posters and all sorts of propaganda,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He quickly became disillusioned with the Naval Academy after witnessing the hazing of a young female midshipman. A group of male midshipmen handcuffed the woman to a urinal in the men\u2019s bathroom, took photos of her, taunted her and pretended to urinate on her, according to a\u00a0Los Angeles Times article<\/a>.<\/p>\n