I have been a lifelong admirer of fat women, and it just developed, in my opinion, as a natural turn of events that I would one day wash up like seaweed on the size acceptance movement's doorstep.

I took a more active interest in size activism in the beginning, I believe, after meeting Rump Parliament's Lee Martindale, and doing a few covers for her magazine. From there I have drifted to NAAFA, Big As Texas, and ISAA. And I have been lucky enough over the years to make friends with the founders of these fine organizations.

Tell us about your art and why you like to draw/paint big beautiful women.

There are several reasons at work; One is that I simply find fat women to be the most beautiful of God's living creatures, and I hope to share that point of view with others through my art.

A second reason is as a sort of activism---thinness is still idealized in our culture, while fat people are considered the 'comedy relief'. This is all due to packaging and icons. Anything that refutes the standard packaging may help, in some small way.

A third reason is as an extension of my love for classical figure drawing. Muscular men and healthy, robust fat women are the 'meat and potatoes' of classical figure art.


You've been a speaker at Big As Texas and you've been ISAA's Good Will Ambassador. Tell us some of your insights about the Movement and how you think it could be more effective.

Well, I think there's no question--there's too much anger within the movement. People are angry at society and they are angry with other members of fat acceptance. All this is counterproductive. There has been a sort of perpetual air of rancor between one size clique and the other; the situation has improved slightly, but there's still a long way to go.

Many fat people are angry because of their life experiences with discrimination, but even thin allies in the movement are capable of acting territorial. It's all part of what makes up politics. But we need to make peace among our factions and work together.

Fat acceptance will never be truly effective, in my opinion, until we have unity across the board.



What are your future plans in regard to the Movement?

I don't currently have any. At this point my only objective is to return to my figure art and to continue to "hang out" within the movement and make friendships.



What are your future plans as an artist?

Well, I'm not interested in the fine art world. I'm going to be a storyteller and an illustrator. Which in my mind is a much more exciting and more creative calling.

I'm going to go back and finish a lot of old projects. A few years back, I went through a sort of explosion where I was drawing comic books, writing novellas, illustrating everything under the sun, and at one point I published a small press magazine that was filled with my own work. Many projects I liked were eventually left hanging--short stories and so on. I'm going to extend and finish and wrap up some of these projects. Then I will publish them on CD.

The first such CD project will be an old sword-and-sorcery tale I did called Aurora and the City of Pearls. It will be profusely illustrated.

I am also interested in developing new comic book characters in the same electronic medium. I may experiment with Flash media. And I'm going to try to develop my painting more, and possibly do more painted covers and posters.



What are your some of your best artistic experiences, BBW and non-BBW?

I have enjoyed a small but lively career on the side doing videogame covers; I have done some recent Nintendo projects among other things. That's a sideline career that I hope is still warming up.

My favorite "BBW" artworks have actually been my paintings---my favorite is one of a lively young blonde on a bicycle. It says much of what I want to say: She's beautiful, she's healthy, she's active, and she's quite fat.

My favorite fat-related works have also been beach-related; I have had an incurable love for the tropics for a long time; it's in my blood. White sands have a splendid beauty all their own; so do the dimples of a fat woman's thigh. These are things we are all better off for having felt, and seen.

All artwork © 2001 Paul Delacroix. Reproduced for Without Measure with permission from the artist.

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