Molly Crabapple

Molly Crabapple was born Jennifer CabanKino, Carole (October 2, 2009). [https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/arts/design/04kino.html?_r=0 "A World Drawn From Wild Tastes"]. The New York Times. in 1983 in Queens, New York City, New York to a Puerto Rican father and a Jewish mother, who was the daughter of a Belarusian immigrant.Zax, Talya (April 16, 2016). [http://forward.com/culture/338454/molly-crabapple-explains-how-you-can-be-an-artist-and-an-activist/ "Molly Crabapple Explains How You Can Be an Artist and an Activist"]. Forward Magazine. Crabapple began drawing at the age of four with guidance from her mother, an illustrator who worked on toy product packaging. Crabapple has remembered herself at age 12 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."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}}. Her school diagnosed her with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and she was expelled from the seventh grade.Crabapple, Molly (February 6, 2013). [https://www.vice.com/en_se/read/shooter-boys-and-at-risk-girls "Shooter Boys and At-Risk Girls"]. Vice. Retrieved June 12, 2014. Crabapple has described herself in high school as "gothy, dorky, and hated".{{cite news |last=Freydkis |first=Josh |date=10 July 2010 |title=Molly Crabapple In Conversation With Josh Freydkis |url=http://magazine.saatchiart.com/articles/artnews/molly_crabapple_in_conversatio |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714131918/http://magazine.saatchiart.com/articles/artnews/molly_crabapple_in_conversatio |archive-date=14 July 2014 |accessdate=14 June 2014 |work=Saatchi Art Magazine}} She never liked her given name, so she started using the name Molly Crabapple after a boyfriend suggested it reflected her character. She discovered punk rock music at age 12.{{cite web |author=Unferth |first=Deb Olin |author-link=Deb Olin Unferth |date=December 4, 2015 |title=Molly Crabapple's 'Drawing Blood' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/06/books/review/molly-crabapples-drawing-blood.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20231105052144/https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/06/books/review/molly-crabapples-drawing-blood.html |archive-date=November 5, 2023 |access-date=November 5, 2023 |language=en-US |newspaper=The New York Times}}

After graduating from high school at age 17, Crabapple traveled to Europe. In Paris, she was welcomed by George Whitman, the proprietor of the English-language bookstore Shakespeare and Company.Crabapple, Molly (December 16, 2011). [http://mollycrabappleart.com/2011/12/16/rip-george-whitman/ RIP George Whitman] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20140617100628/http://mollycrabappleart.com/2011/12/16/rip-george-whitman/ |date=2014-06-17 }}. mollycrabappleart.com. Retrieved June 17, 2014. After receiving a notebook as a gift she began drawing on a serious basis.

Crabapple went on to work as a life model and a burlesque performer, and modeled for the Society of Illustrators.Bussel, Rachel Kramer (December 22, 2005). [http://gothamist.com/2005/12/22/molly_crabapple_1.php Molly Crabapple, Artist, Model, Burlesque Performer] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141109064117/http://gothamist.com/2005/12/22/molly_crabapple_1.php|date=2014-11-09}}. Gothamist. Retrieved June 12, 2014.Wright, Jennifer (2010). [http://www.cityist.com/features/molly_crabapple/ "A Graphic Artist: Whimsical illustrator Molly Crabapple thinks outside The Box"]. Cityist. Retrieved June 14, 2014. At age 19, she was modeling for SuicideGirlsReynolds, Brandon (February 28, 2007). [http://www.styleweekly.com/richmond/moulin-rouge-in-the-face/Content?oid=1382460 Moulin Rouge in the Face]. Style Weekly. Retrieved June 13, 2014. and responding to Craigslist ads for nude photographic modeling.Crabapple, Molly (October 24, 2012). [https://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/the-world-of-a-professional-naked-girl The World of a Professional Naked Girl]. Vice. Retrieved June 16, 2014. Crabapple earned more money modeling than at a typical day job and continued working on her illustrations.Honigman, Ana Finel (May 19, 2009). [http://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/molly-crabapple Apple of Your Eye]. Interview . Retrieved June 17, 2014. She briefly attended the Fashion Institute of Technology,[http://www.fitnyc.edu/4422.asp Profile: Jennifer Caban and John Leavitt, Illustration Alums] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20140615151203/http://www.fitnyc.edu/4422.asp |date=2014-06-15 }} Fashion Institute of Technology. State University of New York. Retrieved June 14, 2014. withdrawing before completing her first year. She characterized the school as being decorated with "fluorescent-lit halls hung with clumsy oil paintings cranked out by the previous semester of failures." For four years she worked as the house artist for the Box, a New York City nightclub. Crabapple has called her time at the Box her "artistic coming-of-age".

File:Dr. Sketchy's Avant Garden Houston.jpg, 2010]]

After working as an artist's model, Crabapple became disenchanted with the structure of a formal sketch class.Iaccarino, Clara (April 7, 2007). [http://www.smh.com.au/news/arts/burlesque-girls-put-sketchers-on-a-learning-curve/2007/04/06/1175366478115.html Burlesque girls put sketchers on a learning curve]. The Sydney Morning Herald. {{issn|0312-6315}}

In 2005, she and illustrator A. V. Phibes founded Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School, a burlesque life-drawing class.Hampton, Justin (January 4, 2007). [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-jan-04-wk-upfront4-story.html Another model of art class]. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 16, 2014.Smith, Mark (February 19, 2007). [https://web.archive.org/web/20081011233235/http://www.timeout.com/london/clubs/features/2612.html#articleAfterMpu Dr Sketchy's Anti-Art School].Time Out London. Archived from the original. At a typical session, artists may drink alcohol while sketching burlesque models and play art games in a venues ranging from bars to art museums. After an artist inquired about starting a Dr. Sketchy's in Melbourne, Australia, it began to spread around the world.Chalupa, Andrea (May 21, 2014). [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrea-chalupa/molly-crabapples-diy-empi_b_584943.html "Molly Crabapple's DIY Empire: A How To"]. The Huffington Post. Retrieved June 15, 2014. As of 2010, there were approximately 150 licensees using the Dr. Sketchy's name.Croughton, Paul (July 18, 2010). [https://web.archive.org/web/20150210201807/http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/culture/arts/Visual_Arts/article345237.ece This will get them interested in art]. The Sunday Times, pp. 10-11. {{subscription required}}

File:9.13.09ActIVateByLuigiNovi11.jpg]]

Crabapple has contributed her illustrations to a number of comics, often with writer John Leavitt. They worked on Backstage (2008), a webcomic at Act-i-vate that tells the story of how fire eater Scarlett O'Herring was murdered. Scarlett Takes Manhattan (2009), a graphic novel published by Fugu Press, is a prequel to Backstage.Rosen, Adam (June 21, 2009). [http://www.gelfmagazine.com/archives/making_a_show_of_it.php Making a Show of It]. Gelf magazine. Retrieved June 17, 2014.Crabapple, Molly; Leavett, John; Howard Des Chenes (May 20, 2008). [http://activatecomix.com/40.comic Backstage]. Act-i-vate. Retrieved June 17, 2014.Bissette, Elizabeth (Fall 2009). [http://issuu.com/fineartmagazine/docs/60-61-mollycrabapple Molly Crabapple]. Fine Art Magazine, pp. 60-61. Retrieved June 17, 2014.O'Shea, Tim (August 24, 2009). [http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2009/08/talking-comics-with-tim-molly-crabapple/ Talking Comics with Tim: Molly Crabapple]. Robot 6. Comic Book Resources. Retrieved June 16, 2014. Puppet Makers (2011), a steampunk webcomic that depicts an alternate history of the Industrial Revolution and the court of Versailles, was released for digital download by DC Comics.Newitz, Annalee (May 10, 2010). [http://io9.com/5534839/in-puppet-makers-the-aristocrats-of-versailles-are-cyborg-courtesans/ In "Puppet Makers," The Aristocrats of Versailles Are Cyborg Courtesans.] io9. Retrieved June 15, 2014.VanderMeer, Jeff; S.J. Chambers (2012). The Steampunk Bible: An Illustrated Guide to the World of Imaginary Airships, Corsets and Goggles, Mad Scientists, and Strange Literature. Abrams. {{ISBN|9781613121665}}. pp. 84-85.Chamberlain, Henry (May 13, 2010).

[http://www.geekweek.com/2010/05/molly-crabapple.html "Interview: Molly Crabapple - Illustrator Extraordinaire"]. Geekweek. Retrieved June 15, 2014.Hofacker, Brian (2007?) [http://www.dynamicforces.com/htmlfiles/interviews.html?showinterview=IN12170793562 "DF Interview: Molly Crabapple"]. Dynamic Forces. Retrieved June 16, 2014. Crabapple also illustrated two Marvel anthologies, Strange Tales vol. 2 and Girl Comics vol. 2.Collins, Sean T. (August 13, 2009). [http://marvel.com/news/comicstories.4752.strange_tales_spotlight~colon~_molly_crabapple_q&a "Strange Tales Spotlight: Molly Crabapple Q&A"]. Marvel.com. Retrieved June 16, 2014.

In September 2011, Crabapple was living in a studio near Zuccotti Park. Occupy Wall Street protesters had begun to use the park as a camp for their movement, artists began creating posters, and Crabapple contributed work and engaged in the movement. "Before Occupy I felt like using my art for activist causes was exploitive of activist causes," she told the Village Voice. "I think what Occupy let me do was it allowed me to, instead of just donating money to politics or just going to marches, it allowed me to engage my art in politics."Zuckerman, Esther (March 11, 2012). [http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/03/molly_crabapple.php Molly Crabapple On 'Shell Game,' Her Surreal Take On the Financial Crisis]. The Village Voice. Retrieved June 18, 2014. Artists and journalists who had come from all over the world to report on the protests used Crabapple's apartment as an "impromptu salon" for the Occupy movement.Newton, Maud (April 13, 2013). [https://newrepublic.com/article/112903/molly-crabapple-and-occupy-wall-street-protest-art How Occupy Changed Contemporary Art]. The New Republic. Retrieved June 17, 2014.{{citation |last=Filipovic |first=Jill |title=Q&A: Occupy's 'Greatest Artist' Writes Her Memoirs |date=August 15, 2013 |work=New York Magazine |url=http://nymag.com/thecut/2013/08/occupys-greatest-artist-writes-her-memoirs.html |author-link=Jill Filipovic |accessdate=June 11, 2014}}Mason, Paul (April 30, 2012). [https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-17872666 Does Occupy signal the death of contemporary art?] BBC News. Retrieved June 11, 2014. In Discordia (2012), British journalist Laurie Penny remembered how "Occupy Wall Street had set up camp two streets away from Crabapple's apartment in Manhattan and we'd just spent a sleepless week documenting arrests. Molly perched at her desk churning out protest posters and handing them to activists to copy and wheat-paste all over the financial district...After three days, the word went out that there was an apartment near the protest camp where you could find hot drinks, basic medical attention and a place to charge your gadgets and file copy. The flat became a temporary sanctuary for stray activists and journalists"Penny, Laurie; Molly Crabapple (2012). Discordia: Six Nights in Crisis Athens. Random House. {{ISBN|9781448156849}}. "I started doing protest posters", Crabapple has recalled. "And in doing these, I found my voice."Honigman, Ana Finel (July 2012). [http://www.artslant.com/ny/artists/rackroom/2700-molly-crabapple "Interview with Molly Crabapple"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923190556/http://www.artslant.com/ny/artists/rackroom/2700-molly-crabapple |date=2015-09-23 }}. ArtSlant. Retrieved June 15, 2014. Author Matt Taibbi called Crabapple "Occupy's greatest artist,"Kassel, Matthew (October 16, 2013). [http://observer.com/2013/10/at-home-with-molly-crabapple/ "At Home With Molly Crabapple"]. New York Observer. Retrieved June 17, 2014. noting the use of the "vampire squid" theme in her Occupy artwork.Taibbi, Matt (April 12, 2013). [https://web.archive.org/web/20130413151906/http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/molly-crabapple-occupys-greatest-artist-opens-show-this-weekend-20130411 "Molly Crabapple, Occupy's Greatest Artist, Opens Show This Weekend"]. Rolling Stone. Retrieved June 15, 2014. A fan of Taibbi's writing, Crabapple had read his 2009 Rolling Stone article "The Great American Bubble Machine," in which Taibbi called Goldman Sachs "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."Roose, Kevin (December 13, 2011). [https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/the-long-life-of-the-vampire-squid-metaphor/ The Long Life of the Vampire Squid]. The New York Times. Retrieved June 16, 2014. When Crabapple used Taibbi's metaphor as a stencil depicting a vampire squid and released it for anyone to use, it went viral throughout the Occupy movement.Gerrard, David Burr (April 3, 2014). [http://www.theawl.com/2014/04/a-conversation-with-matt-taibbi-and-molly-crabapple "A Conversation With Matt Taibbi and Molly Crabapple"]. The Awl. Retrieved June 16, 2014.

On September 17, 2012, Crabapple was among a group of protesters 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.Crabapple, Molly (September 23, 2012). [http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/22/opinion/crabapple-occupy-wall-street/ "My arrest at Occupy Wall Street"]. CNN. Retrieved June 17, 2014. In 2013, the Museum of Modern Art acquired "Poster for the May Day General Strike, 2012" for its Occuprint Portfolio. The poster is a collaborative work by Crabapple, John Leavitt, and Melissa Dowell. It shows a woman holding a match, playing off the word "strike" as an homage to the London matchgirls' strike of 1888.Holpuch, Amanda (October 10, 2013). [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/10/moma-acquires-occupy-wall-street-art-prints New York's Moma acquires Occupy Wall Street art prints]. The Guardian. Retrieved June 17, 2014.

In September 2011, Crabapple engaged in a week-long performance art piece, "Week in Hell". She locked herself inside a hotel room, covered the walls with paper, and spent the next five days filling the paper with illustrations. The project was funded on Kickstarter, garnering 745 backers and over $20,000. In pitching the work, she wrote, "I'm interested in what happens when an artist leaves their studio, their cliches, and their comfort zone and draws beyond the limits of their endurance."{{Cite web|url=https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mollycrabapple/molly-crabapples-week-in-hell/description|title=Molly Crabapple's Week in Hell|website=Kickstarter|language=en-US|access-date=2016-08-24}} Every day of the endeavor was live-streamed to backers. During the week she was continuously visited by friends and fellow artists. A book documenting the project, Art of Molly Crabapple Volume 1: Week in Hell, was released in March 2012.

In 2012, Crabapple raised $30,000 on Kickstarter for The Shell Game, a project involving the creation of ten paintings about the Great Recession. She met her goal in two days, ultimately raising $64,799. An exhibition was held at New York City's Smart Clothes Gallery in April 2013. The show sold out.{{cite web|author=Galperina, Marina|date=March 9, 2012|url=http://animalnewyork.com/2012/molly-crabapple-kickstarted-48160-in-three-days/|title=Molly Crabapple's Kickstarter Made $48,000+ in Three Days|publisher=Animal|accessdate=May 19, 2021|archivedate=March 28, 2013|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130328100516/http://animalnewyork.com/2012/molly-crabapple-kickstarted-48160-in-three-days/}} Uzoamaka Maduka of The American Reader wrote that the paintings were reminiscent of political cartoons during the Gilded Age and the Tammany Hall period of American history, which depicted similar subjects, like "greed, corruption, and structural treason...around the American ideal, and how that ideal is both undone and constructed by these forces."{{cite web|author=Maduka Uzoamaka|date=April 2013|url=http://theamericanreader.com/interview-with-artist-molly-crabapple/|title=In Conversation: Interview with Artist Molly Crabapple|magazine=The American Reader|accessdate=May 19, 2021|archivedate=April 24, 2013|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130424011801/http://theamericanreader.com/interview-with-artist-molly-crabapple/}} Crabapple wrote in her memoir that she regards drawing as "exposure, confrontation, or reckoning. Every line a weapon."{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/01/molly-crabapple-interview-drawing-blood-women-art|title=Molly Crabapple: 'We're just trying to use our art to consume the world'|date=December 1, 2015|newspaper=The Guardian|accessdate=May 19, 2021|author=Dean, Michelle|archivedate=December 2, 2015|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20151202041134/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/01/molly-crabapple-interview-drawing-blood-women-art}}

Starting in 2013, Crabapple began to make trips to the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base to sketch Guantanamo military commission hearings.{{cite news|url= http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/guantanamo-bay-through-the-eyes-of-artist-molly-crabapple| title= Guantanamo Bay Through The Eyes Of Artist Molly Crabapple|publisher = TPM|author = Catherine Thompson| date = 2013-08-15| accessdate = 2015-03-14| quote = She recently visited the detention facility at the US military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba as only the third person allowed to draw the prison and court proceedings at what has become one of the most iconic and controversial plots of land in the world in the last decade.

}} Her drawings, accompanied by written accounts, were first published in Vice magazine under the title "It Don't Gitmo Better Than This".Crabapple, Molly (July 7, 2013). [https://www.vice.com/read/guantanamo-bay-is-kafka-on-the-caribbean "It Don’t Gitmo Better Than This"]. Vice. Further articles and illustrations were released by Vice and The Paris Review.Crabapple, Molly (June 21, 2013). [http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2013/06/21/drawing-gitmo/ "Drawing Gitmo"]. The Paris Review.

In 2015, Crabapple collaborated with FUSION on an animation of a series of illustrations by Crabapple. She also wrote and narrated the video. The video portrays how the Broken Windows Theory policing strategy has been incorporated in New York City.{{Cite web|url=https://fusion.tv/video/40509/molly-crabapple-broken-windows-broken-people/|title=Molly Crabapple: How 'broken windows' policing harms people of color|website=FUSION|language=en|access-date=2021-05-18}} Like other critics, Crabapple objects to the strategy as discriminating against ethnic minorities.{{Cite web|url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/cdozo37&collection=journals&id=1127&startid=&endid=1142|title=The Costs of 'Broken Windows' Policing: Twenty Years and Counting|website=HeinOnline|language=en|access-date=2021-05-20}} Examples of racial discrimination enabled by the theory that Crabapple mentions in the video include Eric Garner, who died after police held him in a chokehold for selling loose cigarettes,{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-49399302|title=Eric Garner: NY officer in 'I can't breathe' death fired|work=BBC News |date=19 August 2019 |language=en|access-date=2021-05-18}} and Kang Wong, who was bloodied by police after jaywalking.{{Cite web|url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2014/01/nypd-officers-beat-up-elderly-jaywalker.html|title=NYPD Officers Allegedly Beat Up Elderly Man After Catching Him Jaywalking|website=New York Mag|date=19 January 2014 |language=en|access-date=2021-05-18}}

Scenes from the Syrian War is a collection of illustrated articles serialized in Vanity Fair and made in collaboration with an anonymous source in Syria. Using photos sent via cellphone, Crabapple recreated rare glimpses of daily life in ISIS-occupied Syria. The series so far consists of "Scenes from Daily Life in the De Facto Capital of ISIS",Crabapple, Molly (October 6, 2014). [http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2014/10/raqqa-syria-isis-daily-life "Scenes from Daily Life in the De Facto Capital of ISIS"]. Vanity Fair which focuses on the city of Raqqa, "Scenes from Daily Life Inside ISIS-Controlled Mosul",Crabapple, Molly (February 5, 2015). [http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/02/inside-isis-controlled-mosul#4 "Scenes from Daily Life Inside ISIS-Controlled Mosul"]. Vanity Fair. and "Scenes From Inside Aleppo: How Life Has Been Transformed by Rebel Rule".Crabapple, Molly (July 20, 2015). [http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/07/inside-aleppo-syria "Scenes From Inside Aleppo: How Life Has Been Transformed by Rebel Rule"]. Vanity Fair.

The Paris Review also featured Crabapple's sketches of anarchist bikers who provided relief following Hurricane Maria.

{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?401183-1/drawing-blood Presentation by Crabapple on Drawing Blood, November 30, 2015], C-SPAN| video2 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?446093-2/brothers-gun Presentation by Crabbapple on Brothers of the Gun, May 25, 2018], C-SPAN}}

In December 2015, HarperCollins published Crabapple's illustrated autobiography, Drawing Blood. Most of the book covers the period in her early and mid-20s, in which she supported herself by burlesque dancing and as a nude model for amateur photographers{{Cite news|last=Castner|first=Brian|title=The Sexiest Memoir of the Year|language=en-US|url-status=live|work=The Daily Beast|url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/12/05/the-sexiest-memoir-of-the-year|date=December 5, 2015|access-date=November 5, 2023|archive-date=November 5, 2023|archive-url=https://archive.today/20231105054602/https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-sexiest-memoir-of-the-year}} in rented hotel rooms and the softcore porn website SuicideGirls. Her experiences of the September 11 attacks, the boom of the early 2000s, the 2007–2008 financial crisis, Occupy Wall Street, and Hurricane Sandy, are also covered in the book, which Deb Olin Unferth, reviewing it for The New York Times, said, "reads like a notebook of New York, a cultural history of a certain set." The book emphasizes how these events were interpreted by Crabapple through her art, which includes original illustrations made specifically for the book. As Unferth observed, "What makes the book captivating and sets it apart from other descriptions of these much-reported events is how it is essentially one long glorious description of what Crabapple drew and why she drew it." Brian Castner, reviewing the memoir for The Daily Beast, said that "Drawing Blood might be the sexiest thing you read this year," calling the book "a remarkable read, dripping in old-fashioned sex, drugs, and rock and roll...a rewarding creation story, the tale of how Jennifer Caban, a shy and shame-filled Puerto Rican-Jewish girl from Queens, became Molly Crabapple: empowered sex-positive feminist, resident-artist of a worldwide movement, and producer of murals that have been compared to Diego Rivera, Bruegel the Elder, and Cirque du Soleil."

In May 2018, Penguin Random House published Brothers of the Gun, co-written (and illustrated) by Crabapple and Marwan Hisham. The book offers an intimate view into the lives of three friends during the beginning of the 2011 Syrian protests through its descent into civil war and violent chaos. One friend is killed by regime forces, another became a revolutionary Islamist and Hisham, a journalist in exile in Turkey.

Brothers of the Gun received several positive reviews, including one from Angela Davis, who wrote: "A revelatory and necessary read on one of the most destructive wars of our time...In great personal detail, Marwan Hisham and Molly Crabapple poignantly capture the tumultuous life in Syria before, after, and during the war—from inside one young man’s consciousness."

In September 2019, it was reported that Crabapple was working on a book on the Jewish Labor Bund, to be published by Random House.{{cite web|url=https://therealnews.com/utopian-enclaves-and-the-history-of-the-jewish-labor-bund-with-molly-crabapple|title=UTOPIAN ENCLAVES AND THE HISTORY OF THE JEWISH LABOR BUND WITH MOLLY CRABAPPLE|author=Gold, Lyta|publisher=The Real News Network|language=en-US|url-status=live|date=September 13, 2013|access-date=November 5, 2023|archive-date=November 5, 2023|archive-url=https://archive.today/20231105055841/https://therealnews.com/utopian-enclaves-and-the-history-of-the-jewish-labor-bund-with-molly-crabapple}}

In 2010, Crabapple collaborated with Canadian singer Kim Boekbinder and filmmaker Jim Batt on the crowdsourced, stop-motion animated film I Have Your Heart. The film is based on Boekbinder's song "The Organ Donor's March". They raised $17,000 on Kickstarter from over 400 backers in April 2011.Cavna, Michael (February 14, 2013). [https://web.archive.org/web/20150329095115/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-34260161.html Artmaking, A Love Story]. The Washington Post. Retrieved June 17, 2014. {{subscription required}}

Crabapple continued her collaboration with Boekbinder and Batt to create a series of five videos on political topics in 2015 for the media website fusion.net. The videos combine live-drawing and animation with voice-over by Crabapple. Each one delves into a controversial or underreported issue and provides facts and commentary on it.[https://fusion.net/author/molly-crabapple/ "Molly Crabapple"]. Fusion. Retrieved September 29, 2016.

In 2015, Crabapple, Boekbinder, and Batt collaborated with the Equal Justice Initiative to create the video "Slavery to Mass Incarceration". Crabapple illustrates the animations, paired with Executive Director Bryan Stevenson's narration, which depict the history of mass enslavement and modern-day mass incarceration.[http://eji.org/videos/slavery-to-mass-incarceration "Slavery to Mass Incarceration"]. Equal Justice Initiative. Retrieved September 29, 2016.

In 2016, Crabapple animated a video produced and narrated by Jay-Z, "The War on Drugs Is an Epic Fail", which presents a critical view of how federal drug laws instituted by the Nixon administration in 1971, as well as those implemented by New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, targeted the Black community, resulting in the explosion of the nation's prison population.{{Cite web|title=Jay Z calls 'war on drugs' an 'epic fail' in New York Times video|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/sep/15/jay-z-war-on-drugs-epic-fail-new-york-times|website=The Guardian|author=Guardian Music|date=September 16, 2016|accessdate=May 9, 2021}}

In 2017, Crabapple collaborated with Boekbinder, the ACLU, Laverne Cox, and Zackary Drucker on a video about transgender history and resistance.{{cite web|author=Cox, Laverne|author-link=Cox, Laverne|url=https://time.com/4894647/trans-transgender-rights-video/ |title=Laverne Cox Will Show You the Long, Intense Fight for Transgender Rights|magazine=Time|date=August 10, 2017}}

Crabapple learned Arabic and traveled to Turkey and Turkish Kurdistan.Dean, Michelle (December 1, 2015). [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/01/molly-crabapple-interview-drawing-blood-women-art "Molly Crabapple: 'We’re just trying to use our art to consume the world'"]. The Guardian. Near the Syrian border, she was briefly detained by police.Kino, Carol (October 2, 2009). [https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/arts/design/04kino.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 A World Drawn From Wild Tastes]. The New York Times. Retrieved June 11, 2014.Lamb, Brian (July 2, 2015). [http://www.c-span.org/video/?326915-1/qa-molly-crabapple&start=1297 "Q&A with Molly Crabapple"]. C-SPAN. Her impressions of the artistry and culture of the Ottoman Empire in the Near East influenced her style and work.Mokoena, Tshepo (March 20, 2011). [http://www.dontpaniconline.com/magazine/arts/molly-crabapple "Molly Crabapple"]. Don't Panic. Retrieved June 12, 2014.

In 2012, Crabapple was one of several artists CNN commissioned to illustrate the theme of power for a digital art gallery pertaining to the 2012 presidential election, as well as the 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.Goldberg, Steve; Schier, Aimee (August 23, 2012). [http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/23/opinion/power-election-art-gallery/index.html "'Power': A digital election art gallery"], CNN. Retrieved June 17, 2014.

Crabapple uses a crosshatch style of illustration based on Arthur L. Guptill's art technique found in Rendering in Pen and Ink (1976), originally published as Drawing with Pen and Ink (1928).Kiniry, Laura (June/July 2009). Art & Artifice. Inked, p. 36. Her style is influenced by Flemish Renaissance painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder, English illustrator Aubrey Beardsley, French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Russian-American artist Zoetica Ebb, American artist Travis Louie, American photographer Clayton Cubitt, and American illustrator Fred Harper.D'Isa, Francesco (November 25, 2009). [https://web.archive.org/web/20091130215409/http://scene360.com/articles/3662/molly-crabapple "Erotic Burlesque Art: An Interview with Molly Crabapple"]. Scene 360. Archived from the original.

File: Molly Crabapple, Istanbul, 2016.jpg]]

Der Spiegel called her approach to writing unique, saying she had created a new role, that of the political journalist-artist ("die politische Journalistenkünstlerin"),Von Rohr, Mathieu (April 7, 2014). [http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-126393852.html "Politik? Yeah!"] Der Spiegel. (15): 152-153. Retrieved June 17, 2014. and in October 2016 Time magazine named her one of its Next Generation Leaders, "sketching from the front lines of conflicts in the U.S. and around the world" writing, "Her work is a perfect slow-media commentary on our current fast-media climate."{{cite web | url=http://time.com/4518784/molly-crabapple-next-generation-leaders/ | title=The Journalist Drawing the World |magazine=Time| date=October 6, 2016| accessdate=October 7, 2016| author=Alter, Charlotte}}

• Brothers of the Gun (Penguin Random House, May 2018)
• Drawing Blood (Harper Collins, December 2015)
• 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)

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• {{citation|last1= Salavetz |first1= Judith |first2= Spencer |last2= Drate |year= 2010 |title= Creating Comics! 47 Master Artists Reveal the Techniques and Inspiration Behind Their Comic Genius |publisher= Rockport Publishers |isbn= 9781610601672 |pages= 40–41}}

{{Commons category|Molly Crabapple}}

{{Wikiquote}}

• {{official website}}
• {{comicbookdb|type=creator|id=12238|title=Molly Crabapple}}
• {{gcdb|type=credit|search=Molly+Crabapple|title=Molly Crabapple}}
• [http://www.drsketchy.com Dr. Sketchy's official website]
• {{C-SPAN}}
• [https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/10/06/my-great-grandfather-the-bundist/ My Great-Grandfather the Bundist]
• [https://yivo.org/bundism-today Bundism Today panel appearance held under the aegis of YIVO.]

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Category:American women illustrators

Category:Living people

Category:1983 births

Category:People from Far Rockaway, Queens

Category:Members of the Democratic Socialists of America from New York (state)

Category:American people of Belarusian-Jewish descent

Category:American people of Puerto Rican descent

Category:American women painters

Category:American feminist artists