Molly Crabapple Illustration

Molly Crabapple is a downtown phenomenon.-The New York Times

The Short Version

*Internationally exhibiting fine artist

* Illustrator for fine places like Marvel Comics, New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal- as well as Neil Gaiman, Amanda Palmer, The Box, Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, and your neighborhood fire eater.

* Creator of Scarlett Takes Manhattan and The Puppet Makers, an upcoming web series for DC Comics.

*Creator of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School, a worldwide movement of alt.drawing salons in over 100 cities.

*Globetrotting speaker at places like the Museum of Modern Art, Sao Paulo’s Pixel Art Fair and South by Southwest Interactive.

*Caffeine addict.

The Long Version

Molly Crabapple is an award-winning artist, author, and the founder of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School

Molly learned to draw in a Parisian bookstore. She later drew her way through Morocco and Kurdistan, and once into a Turkish jail. She’s developed her trademark Victorian style based a fascination with ambition and artifice. Remember, the devil’s in the details

Molly’s drawn for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Marvel Comics and DC Comics, and illustrated over a dozen books. She’s also turned her talents to giant theatrical backdrops, parade installations, burlesque posters, and gallery shows around the world. For two years, she’s been the resident Toulouse Lautrec of The Box, one of New York’s most exclusive nightclubs.

Molly is also the creator of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School, an international chain of alt.drawing salons that takes place in over a hundred cities on five continents.  A business case study and media darling, Dr. Sketchy’s has received hundreds of media profiles and changed the way life drawing is done.

Molly and her projects have been covered in: The New York Times, The LA Times, The New York Post, Time Out London, Time Out New York, The Village Voice, La Repubblica, BUST, HEEB, Venus, HOW Design, Bizarre Magazine, Juxtapoz.com, Suicidegirls, Playboy, BoingBoing, The Scotsman, The National Post, The Houston Chronicle, SF Chronicle, Sydney Morning Herald, Melbourne Age, BBC Radio, AP Wire, NPR, The Channel 11 Morning News, Publishers Weekly, io9, and hundreds of other media outlets around the world.

Molly lectures internationally, at places like Kiasma Museum of Contemparary Art in Helsinki, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, South by Southwest Interactive, San Diego Comic-Con, Pixel Design Fair in Sao Paulo, SMartCamp, and the Massachussets College of Art.

Molly likes to organize burlesque flashmobs, for which she has not yet been arrested.  She’s probably a workaholic, but wouldn’t have it any other way.

Molly is 26 years old and lives in Brooklyn. In her free time, she likes coffee.

Do you want to interview Molly for a paper, zine, webzine, radio show, or any other media? Press@mollycrabapple.com.

Got questions? Comments? Scurrillous Allegations about her past? Email them to molly@mollycrabapple.com.

My Artiste’s Statement

I learned to draw in a Parisian bookstore. My pen and ink technique comes from hours spent copying Alice in Wonderland and A Tart’s Progess. I soon fell in love with the feel of making ink lines- the crackle of the paper, the scratch of the pen nib, the sensual pleasure in drawing a curve.

Back in New York I came across the subject most dear to my heart – artifice. As a model, I work in an industry where girls turn their bodies into art objects. It’s a beauty doubly poignant because it’s so short-lived. Most girls won’t last past thirty. My time as a burlesque dancer showed me plain women emerging from the club’s dressing room as goddesses. Through paint, feathers and pasties, they made themselves gorgeous. It’s beauty as a garment, a shell, a mask.

In the two time periods I draw from most in my work- Victorian England and Rococo France- people tried to make their entire public lives as artificial as a burlesque dancer’s face. My characters, bewigged aristocrats and corseted ladies, are creatures of the polished surface. They’re molded by ornament- their corsets and cage skirts- and sometimes trapped inside.

But as with any mask, there’s a face underneath. And the face in my work is smirking. For any mask, or mask like society, has a weakness. If you want to crack it, you only have to laugh. Thus, my characters have arched brows and sarcastic smiles. They want to let you in on a secret. It’s all terribly silly, isn’t it?

Selected Solo and Group Exhibitions:

“Manifest Equality” curated by Yosi Sargent.  (Hollywood)
Son of Baby Tattooville at The Riverside Art Museum (Riverside)
Thinkspace Gallery (Los Angeles)
Upper Playground (Los Angeles)
Giant Robot Gallery (New York City)
Gallery 1988 (Hollywood)
Copro Nasan Gallery (Hollywood)
Cabinet des Curieux (Paris)
Vanguard Art Fair at Art Basel Miami (2008)
A & D Gallery (London)
Museum of Sex
Last Rites Gallery (New York)
Ad Hoc Art (5 Person Show, 2008, multiple group shows 2009)
Perihelion Arts (solo show, 2006)
Trinity Art Gallery (solo show, 2007)
Fountain Art Fair at Art Basel Miami (2007)
Deitch Art Parade (2007, 2008)

Selected Clients:
New York Times
Wall Street Journal
Marvel Comics
DC Comics
Bloomberg Corporation
Harper Collins
Soft Skull Books
Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art
Amanda Palmer
Zupi Magazine
Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab
The Box

Books:
Scarlett Takes Manhattan
(with John Leavitt, published by Blowfish, 2009)
Dr. Sketchy’s Official Rainy Day Colouring Book
(with John Leavitt, published by Sepulculture Books, 2007)

Anthologies:
Semi-Permanent 2009
Curvy 2007
(Australian anthology of top 100 female artists)
The Comic and Cartoon Book