Molly Crabapple 101:
"15 rules for creative success in the Internet age" - BoingBoing
Show Notes:
3:50 - I’d describe my work mainly as anti-authoritarianism.
5:02 - When I was an 11 year old, I would draw pictures of the cool kids so they wouldn’t beat me up - using art to curry favor, it’s the oldest artist trade.
7:02 - I’ve always drawn the world in front of me, and people always respond to that.
9:10 - Drawings can be as accurate as photos, and in some ways they can be more transparent than photos. Photos have a pretense of truth even though we all know they can be manipulated and photos lie. There’s this idea that if there’s something in a photo, it tells the truth. With drawings, the creator’s subjectivity is front and center.
9:44 - Molly’s writing on Occupy Wall Street on CNN
13:23 - I always say that artists are the most spoiled people on earth - we get to mash together all these genres and get away by saying ‘I’m an artist, dammit’ when people respond to it.
16:01 - Molly’s sketches from Guantanamo: The Faces of Guantanamo in The Daily Beast
23:09 - Photos lie in two ways: by taking a photo of one thing and saying it’s another, or else by taking photos out of context.
31:05 - I think that being able to draw, it gives you permission to look in a way that’s socially unacceptable in most places. When I draw and I’m staring, I realize I look like a creep, but I get to say it’s ok, I’m an artist?
31:26 - Drawing is: Physically reproducing reality.
32:26 - Biggest advice to artists: total stubbornness. Be incredibly true to your work. And look in a sharp way at people making money off of artists, or people on the business end of your field - and if there are popular beliefs that are exclusively to your detriment...examine them.
Artists Molly Follows:
Photographer Clayton Cubitt
36:17 - Molly’s Tools:
In areas where time is of the essence, I use fat gray markers and tiny little micron pens to sketch things down fast fast fast - used this in guantanamo and also in courtroom drawings.
In locations where I have more time, I take iPhone photos, and then examine them later, and focus on the scenes or details in them that I want to bring out - this is how I did my work in Abu Dhabi.
Molly’s Books:
Fiction - A Naked Singularity by De La Pava
Non-Fiction - The Seasons of Trouble: Life Amid the Ruins of Sri Lanka’s Civil War by Rohini Mohan
Molly’s Film: Exit Through the Gift Shop
Molly’s Music: Mashrou’ Leila