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Molly Crabapple

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Molly Crabapple
Born
Jennifer Caban

(1983-09-13) September 13, 1983 (age 41)
Far Rockaway, Queens, New York
NationalityAmerican
Alma materFashion Institute of Technology
Known forFine art, illustration, writing
Notable workShell Game (2013), Week in Hell (2012)
MovementDr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School
Websitemollycrabapple.com

Molly Crabapple (born September 13, 1983) is an American artist, writer and entrepreneur. She is the creator of Dr Sketchy's Anti-Art School, an alternative drawing salon in over 130 cities, worldwide. Crabapple is currently a columnist for Vice magazine.

Early life

Molly Crabapple was born Jennifer Caban[1] in Far Rockaway, New York, to a Jewish mother and a Puerto Rican father.[2] Her mother worked as an illustrator for toy product packaging.[3]

At the age of 12, Crabapple remembers herself as a "snotty goth moppet in a pair of Doc Martens, who blared Hole on her Walkman, drew headless cheerleaders, and read the Marquis de Sade in class".[4] Her school diagnosed her with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and she was expelled from the seventh grade.[4][5]

After graduating from high school at the age of 17, she traveled throughout Europe. In Paris, she worked as a cashier for the English-language bookstore, Shakespeare and Company, where she began drawing on a daily basis after receiving a notebook as a gift. She learned Arabic and traveled to Turkey and Turkish Kurdistan. Near the Syrian border, she was imprisoned for a short period after she was found drawing in her notebook inside a mosque.[6]

Her impressions of the artistry and culture of the Ottoman Empire in the Near East would come to influence her style and work. Crabapple also attended the Fashion Institute of Technology at this time, but dropped out during her first year.[6][7]

Career

Drawing on past experience as an artist's model, Crabapple founded Dr Sketchy's Anti-Art School in Brooklyn in 2005. Dr. Sketchy's is a burlesque life-drawing class.[8][9][10] Beginning in July 2006, Dr. Sketchy's began opening branches in other cities, which now number over 130.[11] Crabapple is the co-author of The Official Dr. Sketchy's Rainy Day Colouring Book.[12]

Crabapple in 2009 at the ACT-I-VATE panel at the 2009 Brooklyn Book Festival with Dean Haspiel (left) and Nathan Schreiber (background).

Crabapple has worked on a number of comics (often with writer John Leavitt), creating the 2009 graphic novel Scarlett Takes Manhattan,[13] drawing stories for two Marvel anthologies Strange Tales vol. 2[14] and Girl Comics vol. 2, as well as providing art for the webcomics Backstage[15] at Act-i-vate[16] and Puppet Makers[17] at Zuda.[18][19]

Crabapple's graphic novel, the steampunk Puppet Makers, was released electronically by DC Comics in 2011.

In 2011, Crabapple was living in a studio a block away from Zuccotti Park.[3] When protesters began to use the plaza as a camp to stage their protests for Occupy Wall Street, artists began creating posters for the movement. According to the BBC, Crabapple's apartment "became an impromptu salon for the graphic novelists, painters, illustrators and graphic designers who clustered around Occupy."[20][21][22][3] On September 17, 2012, she was among a group of protestors arrested during a rally to mark the one-year anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement. She wrote about her experience in a CNN opinion piece.[23] In 2013, the Museum of Modern Art acquired "Poster for the May Day General Strike, 2012" for their Occuprint Portfolio. The poster is a collaborative work by Crabapple and John Leavitt.[24]

In 2011, Crabapple raised $4,500 USD on Kickstarter for her "Week in Hell" installation project. Crabapple rented a bare room for five days and covered it from floor to ceiling with blank paper. Using 200 fine tip markers, she covered the paper with her illustrations over the course of one work week. Financial backers were entitled to a live-stream of the work in process, to make suggestions for illustrations, and were given different-sized sections of drawings, depending on the level of financial support they gave.[25]

Crabapple drawing at the 2011 Stumptown Comics Fest

In 2012, Crabapple raised $30,000 USD on Kickstarter for The Shell Game, a project involving the creation of nine paintings about the Great Recession. She met her goal in two days and ultimately raised $64,799. An exhibition was held at Smart Clothes Gallery in NYC, in April 2013. The show ultimately sold out.[26][27]

In 2012 Crabapple was one of several artists commissioned by CNN to illustrate the theme of power for a digital art gallery pertaining to the 2012 Presidential election,[28] as well as the fundamental forces that drive debates over controversial issues such as money, health race and gender. Crabapple created the illustration "Big Fish Eat Little Fish Eat Big Fish" for the gallery.[29]

Publications

  • Art of Molly Crabapple Volume 2: Devil in the Details (2012)
  • Art of Molly Crabapple Volume 1: Week in Hell (2012)
  • Scarlett Takes Manhattan (2009)
  • Dr. Sketchy's Official Rainy Day Colouring Book (2006)

References

  1. ^ Wright, Jennifer (2010). "A Graphic Artist: Whimsical illustrator Molly Crabapple thinks outside The Box". Cityist.
  2. ^ Mondschein, Ken (January 16, 2007). Hide the Salome. Jewcy.
  3. ^ a b c Newton, Maud (April 13, 2013). How Occupy Changed Contemporary Art. The New Republic.
  4. ^ a b Crabapple, Molly (2012). "Rebels and Muses (or why I draw what I draw)". Art of Molly Crabapple Volume 2: Devil in the Details. Idea & Design Works. ISBN 1613772734.
  5. ^ Crabapple, Molly (Februar 6, 2013). Shooter Boys and At-Risk Girls. Vice.
  6. ^ a b Kino, Carol (October 2, 2009). A World Drawn From Wild Tastes. The New York Times.
  7. ^ Mokoena, Tshepo (March 20, 2011). Molly Crabapple. Don't Panic.
  8. ^ Hampton, Justin (January 4, 2007). Another model of art class. Los Angeles Times.
  9. ^ Mark Smith. "Dr Sketchy's Anti-Art School " Time Out London February 19, 2007
  10. ^ Dan Avery and Erin Clements. "Craft Service" Time Out New York Jan 4–10, 2007
  11. ^ Branch list at DrSketchy.com
  12. ^ Crabapple, Molly; John Leavitt (2006). Sepulculture Books. ISBN 0978953401.
  13. ^ O'Shea, Tim (August 24, 2009). "Talking Comics with Tim: Molly Crabapple". Robot 6. Comic Book Resources. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
  14. ^ Collins, Sean T. (August 13, 2009). "Strange Tales Spotlight: Molly Crabapple Q&A". Marvel.com. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
  15. ^ "act-i-vate". act-i-vate. 2008-05-20. Retrieved 2013-06-30.
  16. ^ Hofacker, Brian. "DF Interview: Molly Crabapple". Dynamic Forces. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
  17. ^ "DC Comics | Welcome to DC Comics". Zudacomics.com. Retrieved 2013-06-30.
  18. ^ Newitz, Annalee (May 10, 2010). "In "Puppet Makers," The Aristocrats of Versailles Are Cyborg Courtesans". io9. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
  19. ^ O'Shea, Tim (June 7, 2010). "Talking Comics with Tim: Molly Crabapple". Robot6. Comic Book Resources. Retrieved June 10, 2010.
  20. ^ Mason, Paul (April 30, 2012). Does Occupy signal the death of contemporary art? BBC News. Retrieved June 11, 2014.
  21. ^ Taibbi, Matt (April 12, 2013). "Molly Crabapple, Occupy's Greatest Artist, Opens Show This Weekend". Rolling Stone.
  22. ^ Filipovic, Jill (August 15, 2013). "Q&A: Occupy’s ‘Greatest Artist’ Writes Her Memoirs". New York Magazine.
  23. ^ Crabapple, Molly (September 23, 2012). "My arrest at Occupy Wall Street". CNN.
  24. ^ Holpuch, Amanda (October 10, 2013). New York's Moma acquires Occupy Wall Street art prints. The Guardian.
  25. ^ Crabapple, Molly. "Molly Crabapple's Week in Hell". Kickstarter. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
  26. ^ Galperina, Marina (March 9, 2012). "Molly Crabapple's Kickstarter Made $48,000+ in Three Days". Animal New York.
  27. ^ Crabapple, Molly "Shell Game: An Art Show About the Financial Meltdown". Kickstarter. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
  28. ^ "Power: A CNN digital art gallery". CNN. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
  29. ^ Goldberg, Steve; Schier, Aimee (August 23, 2012). "'Power': A digital election art gallery". CNN.
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