I am a teacher, a mother, and an artist whose personal experiences
and scribblings in a journal have evolved into a book,
a blog and a belief that even one minute spent
hating our own bodies is a sin, a shame and a personal disaster.
I believe in health and happiness at all sizes.
I believe that we should love, respect and admire
all the amazing sizes, shapes, colors and ages that women come in.
And I believe that women should be measured by the lives we lead,
not by the size we wear!
Like almost everyone else who grows up in our culture,
my girlfriends and I spent the majority of our time worrying about our weight.
Fashion models, advertisers, actresses, and store mannequins
convinced us that super-thin, tall and angular was the only way we should look.
My friend with natural blonde hair and angelic face was preoccupied with her thighs.
Another friend, with cleavage that made jaws drop, hid herself in loose baggy clothes to disguise her "fat" rear end.
I was convinced that I was horribly overweight, even though I have always been naturally lanky, just like my mom and sisters.
But it seemed that we couldn't become thin enough,no matter what restrictive (and ridiculous) diets we tried. We were young and pretty and we hated ourselves!
In my late 20's, I became a single mother with two toddlers,
absolutely struggling to survive financially.
My life consisted of cleaning houses during the day, and taking as many as 15 college credits per semester at night.
I took care of my boys alone, and pushed myself to give them as much positive attention as I could during my limited free hours.
I was often too exhausted, or overwhelmed, to eat at all. I was too busy, and too broke, to worry about my "diet."
I became literally skeletal.
And then the most unbelievable thing began to happen: Total strangers complimented me on my weight!
"You're so lucky to be so thin!" "I wish I knew your secret!"
I was over-stressed and dangerously underweight.
Yet, I was admired for being anorexic! Something was very wrong with this picture...
I became a high school art teacher, and much to my dismay,
my female students were even more obsessed with dieting than my friends and I had ever been!
The few who had the genetic "advantage” of a small build, or who were not yet filled out,
or who were obviously starving themselves were the ones that everyone praised.
I was surrounded by bright, attractive, talented young women who constantly complained and agonized
over perfectly normal, attractive, healthy female physiques.
Whenever we studied art history,
elegant figures by the Classical Greek sculptors,
luscious paintings by Renoir, Reubens, Manet, Titian, Matisse,
the first comment was always, "Why are the women so fat?"
The comments were never about ideal feminine beauty, but fat!
And not just fat, but “Gross! Disgusting! Ugly!”
No matter what I said, my students could not imagine a society that admired anything but the super-thin ideal of today.
And then, in the late 1990's,
one of my darling girls died from anorexia...
Shortly thereafter, characters began appearing as doodles in my sketchbooks: happy, funny, sassy, sexy full-figured gals going through life at full force!
Captions, poems, and little stories popped into my mind and begged to be illustrated.
Drawing, coloring and writing became my way of coping with the senseless loss of my student,
and, surprisingly, acted as a healing for my own issues with body image, eating disorders and self-esteem.
Eventually, I got up the nerve to submit the idea to dozens of publishers.
A few kind editors scribbled notes of encouragement on the rejection letters...
But I was busy with a full-time job and a family to raise,
so I put More to Love into a box in the attic.
In the 10 years that have passed since I packed that box away,
dozens of amazing books on size acceptance and self-esteem have been published.
There are glamorous publications about plus-size beauty and fashion,style and sex appeal.
“Real women” are seen on TV and in movies,on magazine covers, and advertising.
There are print and web resources for plus-size products, social groups, fat activism blogs and size-related medical practices.
Even designer clothes now come in a full range of sizes.
The majority is becoming visible instead of invisible!
And thankfully, many schools see eating disorders as a very serious health threat,
taking aggressive steps to identify it and intervene before it is too late.
However, too many otherwise smart, talented, and attractivewomen, teenagers and girls
continue to waste their time, money, energy and emotions on “the diet”;
hating their own bodies and stopping themselves from living a full and wonderful life “until I get skinny”!
So why did this slim woman create "More to Love"? Because
We need positive reminders of active & attractive, sassy & sexy, lovable women of ALL sizes! Because
We don't need another generation of girls who grow up hating their feminine curves! Because
There is so much more to life than diets!
And because the More to Love gals are so much fun to draw!
I'm working on it!
I am literally a one-woman business.
I am currently squeezing "More to Love"
around a full-time teaching schedule.
In the meantime, you could always buy a copy of More to Love!
Its not quite finished yet but
I'm staying up late nights and spending all my weekends
sketching & rough drafting the next book...
(Big apologies to my neglected family & friends!)
The next book features "big girls" doing everything and anything EXCEPT crying! Look for it in 2010.
In the meantime, as the work progresses
I'll post some sketches & updates on my blog.
Always a question that is so very hard to answer!
I am lucky enough to live near the fabulous museums and galleries in NY city,
and I am constantly enthralled by what I see,
most of which looks nothing like my illustrations!
I have been know to burst into tears in museums,
where I become breathlessly, happily exhausted by the power of human creativity.
However, if I have to pick,
my long-time and always favorite teachers are the artists of the Italian Renaissance,
whose ability to draw the human body never ceases to amaze me,
and the artists of the very early 20th Century,
when traditional art was undergoing fascinating experimental transformations.
And whenever I see an actual French Impressionist painting (not a calendar or a print in a doctor's office!)
I am always astounded by the lusciously layered paint.
Just a few: (but the list changes constantly)
Matisse for his astonishing color and sensuous line,
Edgar Degas for his thickly drawn pastels and asymmetrical compositions,
Michelangelo's muscular, tragic figures,
Picasso who never ceases to surprise and irritate me,
and anyone, everyone, who really knows how to draw!
Oh yes, and I love classic animation...and...and...and...
Undergraduate:
Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, Drawing
University of New Hampshire Graduate:
Masters of Arts in Painting
William Paterson University Post-Graduate:
Professional certificate in Multimedia Technology
New York University
Does More to Love (the book) have anything to do with More to Love (the TV Show)?
No, its just a coincidence!
However, it is a very cool coincidence that the host of the Fox show, Emme,
gave me some very valuable encouragement for developing my book idea back in its early stages.
I initially sketched out and wrote More to Love shortly after one of my students died from anorexia, over 10 years ago.
But I was raising a family and working full-time as a teacher, so I put More to Love into a box up in the attic.
About 5 years ago, Emme came to speak to an assembly at the high school where I teach.
I got up the nerve to approach her after the assembly, and told her about my book idea.
She was gracious enough to allow me to send it to her, and even more surprising,
took time out of her busy schedule to talk to me over the phone about it!
It took me several more years find time to re-illustrate and revise More to Love into the version that is now published.
Emme has since written me a very wonderful & encouraging letter of support for my More to Love.
I am so thrilled that she was chosen to host this new show!
For every woman who has ever felt less, when she truly is more™.
About Elizabeth Patch
