Drawing Blood
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4.0 • 4 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Art was my dearest friend.
To draw was trouble and safety, adventure and freedom.
In that four-cornered kingdom of paper, I lived as I pleased.
This is the story of a girl and her sketchbook.
In language that is fresh, visceral, and deeply moving—and illustrations that are irreverent and gorgeous—here is a memoir that will change the way you think about art, sex, politics, and survival in our times.
From a young age, Molly Crabapple had the eye of an artist and the spirit of a radical. After a restless childhood on New York's Long Island, she left America to see Europe and the Near East, a young artist plunging into unfamiliar cultures, notebook always in hand, drawing what she observed.
Returning to New York City after 9/11 to study art, she posed nude for sketch artists and sketchy photographers, danced burlesque, and modeled for the world famous Suicide Girls. Frustrated with the academy and the conventional art world, she eventually landed a post as house artist at Simon Hammerstein's legendary nightclub The Box, the epicenter of decadent Manhattan nightlife before the financial crisis of 2008. There she had a ringside seat for the pitched battle between the bankers of Wall Street and the entertainers who walked among them—a scandalous, drug-fueled circus of mutual exploitation that she captured in her tart and knowing illustrations. Then, after the crash, a wave of protest movements—from student demonstrations in London to Occupy Wall Street in her own backyard—led Molly to turn her talents to a new form of witness journalism, reporting from places such as Guantanamo, Syria, Rikers Island, and the labor camps of Abu Dhabi. Using both words and artwork to shed light on the darker corners of American empire, she has swiftly become one of the most original and galvanizing voices on the cultural stage.
Now, with the same blend of honesty, fierce insight, and indelible imagery that is her signature, Molly offers her own story: an unforgettable memoir of artistic exploration, political awakening, and personal transformation.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Artist, writer, and activist Crabapple was compelled from a young age by the need to draw because it gives her a sense of self worth. Her struggles as an impoverished artist are rendered here in raw, vivid prose, accompanied by her arresting illustrations. The New York that Crabapple comes of age in is a city in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. As a freshman at FIT, she finds little work to fund her art supplies. Unable to gain a foothold in galleries, she decides to let her body be a canvas and a commodity via lucrative sex work, first via Craigslist ads and later as a SuicideGirl online pinup. "Naked girl money was my escape hatch," Crabapple explains, as the work gave her the means to get noticed. But sick of the exploitation that she and other sex workers and performers were subjected to, she cofounds Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School, a live-drawing workshop that treats its models with respect. When she becomes the house artist for the Box, a burlesque night club, she achieves financial stability and access to the world she's hungered to join; after witnessing the London austerity protests in 2010, however, she realizes she's done drawing for rich club patrons and lends her talent and fervor to the Occupy Wall Street movement. Crabapple has become a powerful artist and feminist, scrapping to make art that matters.
Customer Reviews
Full blooded
Author
American. Celebrated New York artist and writer in her early thirties when she wrote this. Born Jennifer Caban, a moniker she clearly considered far too pedestrian. Contributing editor for VICE magazine and has written for The New York Times, The Paris Review, Vanity Fair, The Guardian, Newsweek, you name it. She’s also a much vaunted illustrator and animator from comics to political commentary.
Summary
Molly tried and dropped out of art school, supporting herself as a life model, a burlesque performer, a nude photographic model, and a go-go dancer. Crabapple finally found her voice, and established her public persona, as the artist to the "Occupy Wall Street" movement. Her series of protest posters became minor classics. Ms C's subsequent drawings made during the Guantanamo military commissions made her a darling of the liberal literati. A series of paintings of the recession called "Shell Game" launched her into the stratosphere in arty circles, not that I would know. She followed up with a series of photos from the Syrian War that she took and sent from her cell phone.
Writing
As good as it gets. Quirkily illustrated too.
Bottom line
Shows the determination required to succeed in the creative arts in NYC. I found it particularly laudable that she managed to avoid rape avoid drug addiction. Fascinating read.