Molly Crabapple is an artist and model based in New York City. She has modeled for nerve.com, Lowrider and has been named one of the 25 sexiest people in NYC by the New York post. Her artwork has appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Marvel Comics. She has a sexy wicked drawing style that has mixes of different tradional art schools seen through her searing indie rock eye.
She started Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School - www.drsketchy.com - in 2005. Dr. Sketchy groups meet in bars in more than 50 cities in about a dozen countries and attendees drink and draw burlesque dancers, singers, carnival performers and alternative models. Molly was a model and artist bored with traditional life drawing classes and wanted to create a more energetic, interesting and free environment to practice art.
Nowadays there are two Dr. Sketchy's related books, an Internet radio station, a pinup calendar and Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art Show of the best art produced by Dr. Sketchy's attendees.
Molly was kind enough to answer some questions for Deviant Nation, and even said if we provide her with some tech support then some Dr. Sketchy's webcam sessions with DN models might be possible.
Check out what she has to say.
How did you become interested in art?
I've been drawing since I was two
Were you formally trained as an artist?
I'm a proud college dropout who honed her pen and ink skills slumming through Europe and the middle east.
Your art is often an updated, slightly twisted, version of Victorian pieces and caricatures - what attracts you to that aesthetic and why are you so comfortable in that genre?
I love the cruel, maximillist, unintentionally hilarious Victorian aesthetic, and feel its quite applicable to the New York City aughts.
You also have experience as a model and a burlesque dancer, how does that influence your art and your attitudes?
Posing for fauxtographers from Massepequa will teach you about artifice and objectification post-stat
How long were you doing art before starting Dr. Sketchy's? Why did you start Dr. Sketchy's? Where did the idea come from? What were you doing when it hit you? What was your hope for it?
I started Sketchy's in 2005. Fed up with the bland life-drawing sessions I both posed for and drew at, I wanted to create with something that jived with my Parisian fantasies. I hoped for some Time Out listings, but never expected a world-wide movement.
How did Dr. Sketchy's spread? How can people get involved - as artists, fans or models?
Artists can just show up. I'm flat out full with models in NYC, but if you're in another city you can just contact your local branch. If you want to start your own Sketchy's branch, go to
www.drsketchy.com/start-your-own.php
If people go to Dr. Sketchy's do they get drawing tips? Do they keep what they create? Is there a Hall of Fame for Dr. Sketchy's participants - either the most talented or most committed?
Sketchy's artists keep what they create and any education is purely of the experiential kind. We do however have international art shows. And when Aleister Grey AND Audrey Kawasaki came to draw at Sketchy's
on different continents- well, that rocked my socks.
Have you created any spectacular pieces at a Dr. Sketchy's session?
I'm too busy running around at Dr. Sketchy's to draw at them
Is the point of Dr. Sketchy's to create spectacular art?
Life drawing is like the gym. You go to the gym to create a badass body, and life-drawing to create a badass drawing style. But your sketchbooks and treadmill motions, while spectacular in themselves,
are means to an end. Short answer- spectacular work does get made at Sketchy's, but the point is more to build your skills.
One of the strengths of Dr. Sketchy's is that many types of people with a variety of backgrounds and interests come to the Dr. Sketchy's sessions, why is that? What is the best example you have of many different artists and non-artists and many people of different ages being involved with Dr. Sketchy's.
We've had everyone from Ron English and Audrey Kawasaki to investment
bankers, broke students, stay at home moms and recently arrested
street artists.
What are the most unique things that have happened at Dr. Sketchy's?
We did Dr. Sketchy's at Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki. I've never been to Finland, but hundreds and hundreds of Finnish girls showed up clad in their pinup best. I was in awe.
How did the Dr. Sketchy's books come about? What is in them?
Dr. Sketchy's books are one part propaganda manual and one part activity book on acid. A small press came to me.
What makes the Dr. Sketchy's books worth reading/owning? What makes the Dr. Sketchy's sessions worth attending/getting involved with?
I would purchase the Dr. Sketchy's book just for our boardgame on becoming a famous artist. You can take a shortcut marked "Shoot Andy Warhol" for chrissakes. If you want to know what's cool about Dr.
Sketchy's sessions, get thee to the photoblog.
What is planned for the future of Dr. Sketchy?
Antarctic domination!
What is planned for the future of Molly Crabapple?
My first graphic novel is available for preorder now. Buying that ensures that there will be a second graphic novel. http://www.amazon.com/Scarlett-Takes-Manhattan-Molly-Crabapple/dp/0982340907/ I'm also excited about upcoming travel/Sketchy biz/speaking/art shows in Paris, Berlin, Brazil, and at infamous art collectors' retreat Baby Tattooville.
Do people really make as much art anymore? Do people buy art anymore? How has the Internet affected art?
Statistically, more art was made in recent years than ever before in history. Our latest art boom is busting, but work is still bought. As for the internet-god bless the beast. I'd have no career without it.
What is the best place to find art? The best way to get exposed to art?
I love me some Juxtapoz and Hi Fructose. Take a look at the gallery lists therin, go to openings, figure out what you like, and don't feel intimidated to have opinions.
Who are your favorite artists? Your favorite models?
I've got a giant soft spot for Toulouse Lautrec, my absinthe swilling clubland hero, and consumptive ambition freak Bearsley. More recently, Clayton Cubbit, Travis Louie, Michael Hussar, Paul Pope,
Madelyn Von Forester, and dozens of others keep me slackjawed with awe.
Models? Big shoutouts to beauties Apnea, Mosh, Aprella, Sasha Grey, Stoya, Justine Joli, Akynos and Amber Ray.
Will there ever be an online version of Dr. Sketchy's? Maybe you set up a Web cam and use some Deviant Nation models and artists, and we have a group Web chat and pull out our pens and papers. What do you think?
Have a tech girl hook it up for me, and I say hells yes.
For more information contact Molly at
Molly Crabapple
molly@drsketchy.com
www.drsketchy.com
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