The word “bewitching” exists for people like Molly Crabapple. A raven-haired Brooklyn-based illustrator who learned to draw in a Parisian bookstore, Crabapple has spent time wandering central Asia as well as trapped in a Turkish prison. Since then, the 25-year-old has done illustrations for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and even Playgirl. She also created the webcomic “Backstage,” a raunchy murder mystery set in turn-of-the-century New York.
Crabapple’s intricate, ornamental illustrations, brimming with mustachioed gents in bowler hats and seductive mistresses in corsets and lace, channel her fascination with the Victorian as well as with cabaret culture. “One of my greatest inspirations as an artist was Toulouse Lautrec and his portrayal of Paris’s cabaret scene,” she explained.
Meanwhile, her fixation on “Alice in Wonderland” from her early days as an artist has informed her steampunk sensibility. On top of her artistic pursuits, Crabapple has ventured into the worlds of modeling and burlesque, which she claims have cultivated her interest in artifice and ornament.
With one foot in the world of illustration and the other in New York’s performance scene, Crabapple is a busy lady, but she finds that the balancing act suits her. In 2005, she decided to create a stage to combine her passions. The steamy result was “Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School,” where drawing meets cabaret in a union as sexy as a striptease show at the Moulin Rouge.
“There were definitely things I liked about working as an artist’s model … but all too often I found it a bit, well, sterile,” Crabapple described. “I wanted a place that celebrated the model as muse.”
The show, which takes place every other Saturday at the infamous Lower East Side burlesque club, The Slipper Room, brings in all types of people. The typical audience is a mix of creative professionals, students, and curious laymen drawn in by its novelty, while the models are as flashy and exuberant as a flock of absinthe-imbibing cancan dancers straight from the golden age of cabaret.
“The things I look for in a model are striking physical features, elaborate costumes, or wild physical abilities like contortion or trapeze,” Crabapple said. She knows most of the models that perform at The Slipper Room personally, as she met them through her own work as a performer.
“Dr. Sketchy’s” has proven so popular since it first stormed onto New York’s art scene four years ago that it has since spread to over 80 cities across four continents. While modeling at one of the show’s locations in Scotland, Crabapple found herself being drawn by the acclaimed Scottish writer and artist Alasdair Gray. “This has all been incredibly exciting to me,” she said.
As busy as her life is, Crabapple now has a few other schemes up her frilly sleeve. She has just released her first graphic novel, “Scarlet Takes Manhattan,” and is currently working on an installation for Miami’s Art Basel show this December. But, as she slyly added, “I have a few secret projects as well.”
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