- using pencils to create realism

- adding clown imagery on top to add concept

- putting the fat lady in the skeleton man’s clothes

- old fashioned circus imagery mixed with modern urban scene

- using photoshop to edit the image, build up layers

Hausa Supestitions and Customs by A.J.N Tremearne

The Image of the Giantess seems to have appeared all over the world including in the folk stories of the Hausa People of Africa. One tale tells the story of ‘The Boy And The One-Sided Giantess’. This is the story of the King’s Son who has decided to go out and see the world. He comes to a big lake where he meets a Giantess. This Giantess has ‘one arm, one leg, and one eye’. She drinks the water from the lake and begins to cry ‘saying that her thirst was not quenched’. She then goes on to make porridge and soup made of 2 big bulls. She eats the food and begins to cry again as the food has not filled her. After seeing this the boy runs home saying ‘O my Father, I have seen what is in the world’.

It’s interesting that again in this story the Giantess, like Mrs Yoop, is linked to the consumption of food and unhappiness, themes that are easily linked to the modern concepts associated with large women, compulsive eating and comfort eating. In both stories the women are terrifying figures who need to be escaped from. The boy has seen what is out in the world and does not want to travel into the outside world again. However thinking about this story and african poverty, the story might be linked to the fear of lack of water and food outside of the King’s land. 

The Tin Woodman Of Oz by Layman Frank Baum

Today I came across a chapter in Baum’s book called ‘Mrs Yoop, the Giantess’.

 In this chapter a group of adventurers are looking for somewhere to sleep when they see ‘an enormous castle, built of purple stone’ which they discus as ‘really too big for any use’. Upon entering the castle they are met by Mrs Yoop the Giantess. Mrs Yoop is  described as ‘clad in silver robes embroidered with gay floral designs, and wore over this splendid raiment a short apron of elaborate lace work’. Throughout the chapter she never stops eating, even when talking about her husband who has been captured and put in a cage. The husband she describes seems to have abused her ‘Often he kicked me on the shins’. 

 She seems to be a mixture of good and evil. ‘Good natured (but).. more terrible than they had imagined’. She is terribly lonely and has a magic power that allows her to transform things into anything she wants. She tells the adventurers that she will transform them so they never leave her. What struck me about Mrs Yoop was her obsession with food. Every other sentence was about her biscuits or her hunger. My interpretation of her was a lonely woman who eats to try and fill the void that her loneliness has created. 

The Secrets of Side Shows by Joe Nickell

After learning about Anna I’ve begun to look further into ‘Freaks’ by reading a chapter by Joe Nickell called ‘Human Oddities, Large and Small’.  He describes a freak as someone who ‘stirs up both supernatural terror and natural sympathy... one of us, the human child of human parents, however altered by forces we do not quite understand into something mythical and mysterious’. I guess this is what has drawn me to the subject. All my past work has reflected ‘Otherness’, things that don’t quite fit the ‘norm’. (e.g. Hysterics, anorexics, giants, mythical/magical beings, monsters, ghosts)

Nickell tells us that these giants arise because of a very rare illness called Gigantism where the child’s bones over grow. Historically Gigantism suffers were used as soldiers or royal guards. When the supply of giants became low Fredrick the 1st of Prussia allegedly would kidnap women of appropriate size to reproduce with his giants and produce a second generation. It wasn’t until the 17th C that giants began to be exhibited in side shows. 

The sideshows would often exaggerate the size of the Giantess by proclaiming her as ‘The Tallest Woman In The World’ and even adding a few extra inches to her height. Nickell tells us of a variety of techniques the circus used to make the Giantess even bigger. 

cutting their shirts to make them appear wider

making cuffs to short

wearing headdresses or piling their hair on top of their heads

shooting them from a low angle in photographs

standing them next to midgets

This reminds me of the plus sized models I spoke about before. It’s as if Dakin is a modern day circus master, padding his girls hips and stuffing their bras.

Nickell also tells us that ‘While midgets are traditionally pugnacious, giants are usually gentle with a tendency for melancholy. In side shows a giant and a midget will often become inseparable friends, complementing each other in character traits’.

Nickell goes on to write about a different kind of ‘giant’, fat people. There were many fat ladies in the circus often weighing over 800 pounds such as Pearl Washington, Ida Maitland and the Carlon sisters. However they were often not known by these names but rather names like Jolly Irene, Happy Jenny or Jolly Dolly. Johnny Meah, who has written about the genre of fat people ‘suspects that whoever first yoked together the words jolly and fat had probably never spent much time around fat people’. Although a harsh remark, i would have to agree that in today’s society being fat certainly doesn’t seem to make people very happy. Meah, seems to be very critical of ‘fat people’ as an attraction, suggesting that they are self made freaks ‘who have literally eaten their way into the spotlight’.  This reflects the way fat people in today’s society are considered lazy and told their weight is their own fault.  The fat ladies would often dress in girlie, dainty outfits to make them more humorous.  One lady, Sweet Marie, would pose in a bikini with a banner stating ‘Oh My! But She Is Fat’ suggesting the point of these fat ladies was amusements to make fun of. Another banner reads 

‘She’s so big and so fat it takes four men to hug her and a boxcar to lug her. And when she starts to dance, she quivers like a bowl of grandmother’s jelly on a cold frosty morn. Hell, it must be jelly ‘cause jam don’t shake like that. That’s right, 532 pounds of female pulchritude. Mmmm boy! she’s a big one”

One image in the text particularly stood out to me, the picture card of Miss Peggy which portrays her as a pig. It makes me wonder what was going through the minds of these fat ladies. Were they happy or were they embarrassed and upset by the horrible insults they received. When asked if she was happy one fat lady replied ‘oh, sure... I guess you get a kick out of doing anything you do real well, I’m a real good freak and I know every night there’s hundreds of people willing to pay money to see me’. This suggests it is success that makes her happy. This might explain why body fat today creates such unhappiness, we are constantly told by the media that thinness equals success. A successful woman is not a fat woman. 

Nickell also goes on to talk about a different freak, The Human Skeleton. These freaks would often weigh as little as 45 pounds! These freaks however were not anorexic, but often had a condition called ‘acute muscular atrophy’ which would cause muscle wastage. Many of these Skeletons would wear a costume of black tights, top hat and white tie.

Strangely a lot of Fat Ladies would often marry human skeletons which is reflected in this well known ryhme

Jack Sprat

Could eat no fat

His wife could eat no lean

And so betwixt them both

They lick’d the platter clean.

This has got me thinking about the dark and twisted nature of children’s ryhmes and fairytales. I want the images I create to have a strange mixture of humor and fear. 

Anna Swan continued

After breifly reading about Anna Swan I was inspired to research her further. 

Anna had had many marriage proposals before Martin but always feared men were after the money she had earned in the circus. The couple married in London at St Martin’s Church, Trafalgar Square and continued to live in London for some time at 45 Craven Street, Charing Cross. Queen Victoria was present at the wedding and even gave Anna her wedding dress and a diamond ring. The wedding was a huge affair with many guests and newspapers present.  

Anna faced many tragedies throughout her life. In 1865 she was caught in a fire at the circus museum. She was too big to get out of the doors so was allegedly carried out with a rope through a broken wall. She also suffered great unhappiness with child birth. She gave birth to 2 giant children who did not live past 24 hours. 

Anna was fond of animals and in their giant home she had a monkey named buttons who enjoyed himself by throwing rocks at the staff and a parrot that Martin had trained to shout ‘get off my property’ at unwanted visitors!

When Anna died, possibly of consumption, Martin was distraught but later remarried. However upon his death he asked to be buried with Anna, the love of his life.

I’m really drawn to the story of Anna. Her tale is strange mixture of great joy and sadness that could bring an interesting quality to my work. Im completely obsessed with the photos I have found of her. The washed out and slightly eery quality creates an uneasy atmosphere which I definitely want to try and achieve in my drawings. Im particularly drawn to the image of her in a wedding dress which evokes a feeling of the lonely Mrs Havisham. 

Sketch Book

Anna Swan

Today I came across an amazing real life Giantess called Anna Swan. Anna was born in Nova Scotia, Canada in 1846 and weighed 18 pounds at birth! At full height she was said to reach seven feet and eleven and a half inches! She became famous as a sideshow freak in the Barnum Circus. When performing Anna would often sing, act, play piano or chat quietly sipping tea. She would also lecture on the history of giants and sometimes wrap a tape measure around her waist and then ask a female member of the audience to go the same.

The stories I have found out about her are truly heart warming. She seems to have been a lovely gentle woman who fell in love with another Giant, Martin van buren Bates. The two later married and built their own house made for their size. When she died Martin built her a giant statue on her grave in remembrance of her. 

Ganesha

As I’ve decided to incorporate images of elephants into my work, I felt it was important look at the symbology of elephants and have come across the Hindu god ‘Ganesha’, a popular figure in indian art. He is often depicted dancing, sitting and in a range of contemporary situations. In most images he holds his own broken tusk in one hand, food in another, other hands hold an axe and a noose. Ganesha is also associated with pot bellys and sometimes rides a rat or mouse. He is often worshipped as a remover of obstacles or a lord of learning.

- what a coincidence that in this representation of Ganesha he has a blue circle behind his head...

- exploring elephant theme

- making images more surreal 

- mixing childlike with dark imagery

- practicing drawing realistic elephant

- mixing realism with childlike buildings

- mixing modern imagery such as fashion with celtic and norse mythology such as sword and riding of wolf e.g. legend of Hyrokkin 

- changing my giantess to riding elephant instead of wolf as a modern version

- elephant evokes circus imagery and the glamorisation of elephant riding in popular culture. E.g. Celebritiys riding them at parties. 

-  elephant also considered a large animal linked to giant 

-taking the style of Norse illustrations but giving a modern twist by using a fashion model and kitsch colours

-blue moon from Charmion also links to celtic myth of Bebinn goddess of the moon

- in the style of W.G Collingwood’s depictionof the Norse Goddess ‘Skadi’ longing for the mountains

Norse Goddesses and Celtic Mythology

I’ve begun to find some very basic information on Giantess figures from Norse and Celtic Mythology.

The Giantess’s in the Norse stories seem to be portrayed as beautiful and courageous such as Grid who saved the life of Thor, or Gerd, who is described as having naked arms that illuminated air and sea. They are also characterised as extremely powerful. Hyrrokin, who rides a giant wolf with vipers for reins, has the strength to push ships and even shake the earth. Hyrrokin however is not beautiful like the others. Her name translates to ‘fire-smoked’ and is suggested to link to her dark shriveled appearance. She is also found listed as a troll woman. Other Norse Giantess’ are connected with winter, mountains, and brides. One Giantess ‘Thokk’ is portrayed (1st image above) in a 17th C Icelandic manuscript. 

Ive been having trouble finding much information on the celtic representations apart from one Giantess ‘Bebinn’ meaning Moon, who is a musical woman, considered loving and beautiful and seemed to resemble a tall, fair Viking. However I did come across an amazing illustrator Howard David Johnson who creates photorealistic colour pencil illustrations of celtic myths (2nd image above). 

-incorporating imagery from ‘Charmion’ - blue moon

- adding celtic imagery linking to ancient myths

- beginning to think about costume and name for giantess (influenced by Charmion)

-  exploring mixed media

Charmion Giantess of Divine Providence- by Harry S. Monesson

- images and quotes that may be useful for drawings

“wining horses, jammed in a window, heart shaped belly button, ‘Feed me, beautiful bobby’, the floor sagging beneath her feet, WHAM! CRUNCH! CRASH!’, head breaking through the roof,  ‘I never meant to displease you with my unclothed condition’, softly sob her heart out, tears like rainwater, lying on four mattresses, ‘I think she could hold up the entire Earth while you and I danced on it’, ‘didn’t you notice those massive jutting breasts, and those full, shapely hips’, pearl teeth melting heart of lucifer, RRRIIIIIPPP, ‘Eat, eat!’, ‘emptied- tummy-mannequin-binge-diet’, biceps like twin mountain peaks, ‘Short or Tall, none to big or too small!’, hiding beneath her skirt, blue moon that encircles her planet, falling asleep in her arms, ‘that monstrous thing’, Big Baby, Big Momma, ‘What the hell is that’, ‘Is it a Man, a Woman, or a Beast’, Queen Kong, Female Hercules, tied 3 chairs together with plastic bags, Big Oak Woman, ‘gulping great volumes of air’, ‘Hips like battleships are swinging our way’, ‘She’s tearing up the street with those big, heavy feet!’, ‘Beware of that elephantine rear, wider than 10 bear!’, its snowing in heaven, overweight load, eiffel tower, dainty anorexic cinderella, carry the earth on her back, stepping on tiptoe from cloud to cloud, servants holding her gown, ‘Id rather be tiny, cute and funny’, glaring eyes and a big fat ass, constricting snake, she-he freak, ‘Jesus Christ in drag’, ‘freaky dame’, ‘fat-ass-bitch’, ‘Damned if your breasts ain’t a couple of sacks of cement’, circus acts, ‘Send her back into the kitchen where she belongs!’, oaklike thighs,”

- aim to challenge the eat less t-shirt by promoting image of health

- possibly going to far and promoting over eating

Eat Less

Urban Outfitters recently released a T-shirt sporting the words ‘EAT LESS’ which sparked great controversy and lead the store to remove the item from their lines. There has been a lot of arguement about whether the slogan is offensive or just comical. I am more worried about the way they portray the t-shirt. The model is so slim and looks tired and unwell with bags under her eyes. Is this really the image we should be promoting to young girls?

-giving my giantess reptilian skin

-making her more powerful and mystical

-creating otherness

A Race Of Giants Covered The Earth by Lorenzo Watermark

Today I came across an interesting article that suggests ‘Myths’ about giants are in fact true. Watermark argues that almost every country and religion tells stories of humans ‘of huge size, displaying great powers of intellect and hurculean strength’. This is seen in stories such as ‘Gilgamesh’ the Babylonian King (who is pictured holding 2 lions by the leg), David and Goliath, and artifacts such as mummified heads of Inca Kings that indicate they were 9 to 10 feet tall. Watermark feels if so many diverse cultures talk of giants then there must be some truth to the myths. Watermark goes on to tell us that giant human foot prints have been found next to dinosaur prints, which would suggest giant humans could have been wiped out with the dinosaurs. I don’t now about the accuracy of these comments or whether I believe him but it has got me thinking about depicting my Giantess as coming from an almost alien superhuman race, possibly similar to the reptilian creatures in ‘Doctor Who’ which are said to have ruled the earth before being forced underground by today’s human race. 

- influenced by Tenniel’s use of morphing, elongation, shock and comedy

John Tenniel, Alice in Wonderland.

John Tenniel was an English Illustrator (1829-25) who’s most famous works are the drawings he created for Lewis Carol’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’, possibly the most famous literary illustrations ever created. The images were created using the engraved wood cut process. This set of Illustrations has always greatly inspired me. His mixture of detail and bold imagery set in a fantastical dark world has influenced me since childhood. His depictions of alice as a Giantess show her as shocked, elongated, uncomfortable, unhappy, 

Quotes from the book that may come in useful for later drawings:

‘Now I’m opening out like the largest telescope’

‘ you ought to be ashamed of yourself... a great girl like you...to go on crying in this way’

‘what will become of me’

- putting model into setting, derelict room

mix of colour and grey scale to draw eye to vocal point

- needs more claustrophobia

- beginning the drawing process as a form of note taking, quick sketches recording ideas. experiments

- based on images of plus sized models

- exaggerating largeness

- blue evokes magical, powerful and lonely qualities

BOOTYLICIOUS! The women who put bottoms and bosoms back in vogue

Today I came across a recent issue of The Sunday Times Magazine which featured an article on plus sized models. The article looks at four beautiful models who are not the conventional model size and Gary Dakin, their modeling agent. Dakin’s biggest star is the model Crystal Rene, a size 14 who is a beautiful woman with large curves in all the right places. She turned to plus sized modeling after battling with Anorexia as a normal or ‘straight’ model. Dakin tells us that large is his ideal of beauty. “My best friend at school was 6ft tall, a big girl.... my Grandmother was a big woman... the ideal of beauty I grew up with’  He even encourages his girls to put on weight. ‘They’re supplied with padding to plump up hips, “chicken cutlets” to stuff into bras’. 

The fashion industry has questioned the plus- sized look suggesting that it was ‘promoting an image that is as unhealthy as emaciation’. Alexandra Shulman, an editor of Vogue, does not believe this is the future of fashion and feels that ‘readers (don’t) want very, very skinny girls; at the same time I don’t think they want size 16 girls either. I don’t think anyone sees a big girl walking down the runway and thinks ‘Oh, I must put some weight on”

I believe the increase of plus- sized models is definitely a step in a positive direction but even these women leave me feeling insecure. Although the reporter Louise France describes the girls as having ‘Stretch marks, dimples, squashy rolls of tummy’, none of these are visible in the photos. Yes the women look larger but they still look perfectly in proportion with every curve in the right place. Im probably a lot smaller in size than them but I still feel ugly in comparison, with all my lumps and bumps in the wrong places, and I'm sure many other girls would feel the same. Is the model we really need a woman with wonky boobs and a thick waist? The trouble is that fashion functions through aspiration. The aim of it is to use clothes to make you create an image of who you want to be. If the image was you already what would you be aspiring to be? At least these models aren’t promoting Anorexia and are encouraging young women that they can be both big and beautiful.

Proposal

Proposal

Gi-ant-ess

noun

An imaginary or mythical female being of human form but superhuman size, strength, etc

Any very large woman 

Me

Whilst studying at Nottingham Trent I intend to create a body of work exploring the idea of the ‘Giantess’. 

Giantess is an image that has continued to appear in many works of art and literature for hundreds of years in a multitude of forms. As a term ‘Giantess’  begun with fantasy creatures in Norse Mythology. These creatures were powerful, beautiful and respected beings which often protected and saved those around them. Similar figures were seen in the celtic folklore of Scotland and were often depicted as loving and gentle creatures. The image appears again in later european literature where she becomes an erotic symbol in the poetry of Baudelaire and an image of disgust and repulsion in Jonathon Swift's 'Guliver's Travels’. She is seen again in Lewis Carol’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’, where the character grows to giant proportions when eating biscuits and cake, possibly the first time Giantess is linked with the more modern ideas of consumption of food. In today’s depictions she often takes the form of the strong, sexual and empowered woman. This is seen in films such as ‘Attack of the 50 Foot Woman’, in which the main character becomes liberated by her new proportions and encourages other women to feel the same. In comic book art we see her again become a dominating and beautiful character such as ‘Wonder Woman’. In film  the Giantess can also become objectified as a an overtly sexual being and this is taken even further in adult literature. Thousands of websites are dedicated to sexual stories and images of giant woman with categories such as ‘The Butt Giantess’, when the Giantess uses her bottom to destroy cities and buildings. Stories also appear of the Giantess using her power against other women in tales such as ‘Girl Shrinks Girl’, possibly highlighting ideas of jealousy in female relationships. 

However, none of these depictions and stories look into what in reality it feels like to be a giant woman. There are many women in the world who have genetic disorders which cause their bodies to grow to giant proportions. Some feel empowered by size such as model and actress Cassidy Heights who it is said to ‘stand at  6’3 and is well worth the climb’, yet others feel monstrous, ugly and deformed.  It does not only take a genetic disorder to create a Giantess, many women feel giant and grotesque through their body weight alone. Size is an extremely important part of everyday life for today’s average woman, with the exaggerated images of women’s bodies displayed in the media and the current obsession with smaller body proportions. In disorders such as Anorexia we see a malnourished and tiny body, but in her mind she sees the revolting Giantess.

Through a range of mixed media works I am interested in pulling all the different strands and interpretations of the Giantess together to explore how women really feel about size today. Merging  my interests in mythical imagery and modern society, I plan to develop my knowledge of narrative and character to create work that explores the many complex theories surrounding female body size and explore my own personal problems with height and weight. 

A bit about me

Im Emma, an Artist and Illustrator who is about to start a Masters in Illustration at Nottingham Trent. I graduated from BA(Hons) Fine Art at Leeds University this time last year and since then have been working on a series of projects and exhibiting my work around Yorkshire. 

The project I have proposed is entitled ‘Giantess’ (more info to follow), 

To see any pieces of my work I've created before today please visit www.emmamelton.co.uk