Quinn

Participatory Portrait

She was

too big

Quinn grew up learning that her body, her height and even the volume of her personality were somehow excessive. She was made to feel that taking up space was something she should apologise for.

Painted portrait of a woman with long dark hair and green eyes against a textured green and yellow background.

Quinn is a lesbian who grew up on a council estate, where comments about her body became part of how she learned to see herself.

She was called too fat, too tall, too loud, too big. Her stomach was picked apart. She heard “fat cow.”

The message was not simply that her body was wrong, but that she herself should take up less room. Be quieter. Smaller. Easier to fit around other people.

Over time, Quinn learned to shrink herself in ways that had nothing to do with her size.

But she is more than the measurements and insults other people attached to her. Her story is about what happens when a woman is repeatedly told that simply existing at full size is too much.

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THE DESTRUCTION

Dimmed

Altered portrait covered with large white handwritten phrases including “too fat,” “too tall,” “too loud,” “too big” and “fat cow,” obscuring much of the woman’s face.

About the Work

2026

Acrylic on canvas

Before adding the words used against Quinn, I deliberately dimmed the portrait, taking some of the light and vibrancy out of her first.

I then covered her with the labels she had been given: TOO FAT. TOO TALL. TOO LOUD. TOO BIG. FAT COW.

The altered portrait reflects the way she learned to shrink herself in response to other people’s judgement — not only physically, but in how brightly and fully she allowed herself to exist.

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