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In September 2011 artist and firebrand, Molly Crabapple, locked herself in a hotel room, covered the walls in paper, and filled 270 square feet of wall with art. The project, called "Molly Crabapple''s Week in Hell," is a wild ride through the imagination of an artist stretching herself to the limits of her endurance. Gorgeous photographs by Steve Prue show Ms. Crabapple''s sheer talent, audacity, and ambition at work. From the first stroke of pen upon paper to the glorious 360-degree view of a room full of art, this book chronicles the trials and joys of the Week in Hell, including visits from some of New York City''s artistic luminaries, absinthe parties, live models, and musical accompaniment. The project was funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign which garnered 745 backers who watched the whole week unfold in live webcasts with the artist, following Molly Crabapple into the madness of art. Photos by Steve Prue, with additional photography by Kate Black, Yumna, and Andras Frenyo Front and back cover photography by Clayton Cubitt
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"Molly Crabapple is an illustrator and chronicler of New York's demimonde. Her new book charts a five-day self-inflicted endurance test. The mission: to cover 270 square feet... with her hallucinatory Victorian-inspired illustrations... Week in Hell is equal parts Hieronymus Bosch, William S Burroughs and Cirque du Soleil."-The Guardian
"...every possible inch of space bar the floor and ceiling is indeed given over to art: vast 'canvasses' swirling with the lushest of lines forming the sort of neo-Victorian fantasies that could only come from Crabapple. It's like some Bacchanalian tea party as attended by animals, aerialists, and hundreds of tiny girlthings"-Page 45
About the Author
Molly Crabapple is an artist and entrepreneur, who's been called "a downtown phenomenon" by The New York Times, "one of New York's coolest denizens" by the New York Post, and "The artist of our time" by comedian MargaretCho. She does hyper-detailed Victorian pen and inks for graphic novels, giant nightclub murals, and for clients like DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Moleskine, SXSW, Red Bull and the Wall Street Journal- as well as posters for Occupy Wall Street. Molly is also the founder of Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School - an alt.drawing salon with branches in 120 cities from Akron to Zagreb. She's created live art installations at the Standard Hotel, The Ace Hotel, The Museum of Modern Art and The Brooklyn Museum. Molly is 28 years old, lives in New York, and likes to drug herself with scotch and coffee
Molly Crabapple's hyper-detailed compositions are something akin to a Where's Waldo diptych--on a 7-day bender. If Dr. Seuss backtracked through the time-space continuum and commissioned Toulouse-Lautrec to reimagine his storybooks, the resulting mayhem would approximate Crabapple's spiraling scenes of sex, ambition and artifice.
From her auto-didactical beginnings in a Parisian bookstore--where she cultivated her signature aesthetic by copying pages from A Tart's Progress--Molly sketched her way through Morocco and Kurdistan...and once into a Turkish jail.
Spurred by a desire to de-sterilize the buttoned-up art school scene, Molly founded Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School, a celebratory mash-up of cabaret and live drawing. Now in its 6th year--with branches in over a hundred cities--Dr. Sketchy's global trajectory continues to accelerate. Molly's brand of off-grid entrepreneurship caught the attention of major media outlets, securing cover stories and featured profiles in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, Playboy, AP Wire, NPR, and hundreds of other media outlets around the world.
No stranger to nightlife (or notoriety), Molly collaborates with avant-garde performers and underground theatrical venues across the globe, occupying the enviable post of House Artist for The Box, one of the world's most infamous nightclubs. Her latest contribution to The Box--a 90-foot mural for the club's London branch--required a painstaking application of graffiti, sandpaper, and splattered burnt sienna paint, on surfaces ranging from enamel tiles to raw linen.
Molly's first graphic novel, the steampunk saga Puppet Makers, was released electronically by DC Comics in 2011, and her forthcoming Straw House will be issued by First Second Books in 2013. With close-woven ties to comic book sub-culture, it comes as no surprise that Crabapple's celebrity fans include Hugo Award-winning graphic novelist Neil Gaiman--as well as musician Moby and comedian Margaret Cho.
At 28, the New York City-based artist has spoken to throngs of admirers at the Museum of Modern Art, The Brooklyn Museum, and heavyweight galleries and universities from Helsinki to Sao Paulo. Her client roster includes The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Red Bull, Marvel Comics, and a few less-respectable patrons.
Molly adores absinthe, circus performers, leather-bound books and crowquill pens. She is deeply entrenched in plots of world domination, but will (temporarily) set aside her stratagems for commissioned projects...and impromptu trips to Paris.
As I live in the bleary abyss of cornfields and woodlands of the midwest, I first became aware of the lovely Miss Molly Crabapple (and her equally lovely work) through the Twitterverse. In fact, you can (and should), follow her yourself @mollycrabapple Being a lifelong comic fan and following several people in that field, I was scanning my twitter feed late one night and saw a retweet by none other than Mr. Warren F***ing Ellis. It was then that I became aware of a project called Week in Hell, by a tiny and hauntingly beautiful NYC artist named Molly Crabapple. After reading a bit about the project and scanning through her previous tweets, I was hooked. I followed the project via twitter and preordered the first volume through my LCS. (that's Local Comic Shop to all you non-geeks out there) As I understand it this is the first of a Three Volume set to be published through IDW Publishing, of which the second volume Devil in the Details, is currently available for preorder. So, when you purchase this volume, and I urge you to do so, go ahead and preorder volume 2 as well! Week in Hell is an acid trip from your sophomore year in college, an all night Absinthe infused soiree with dear friends and an explosion of non-traditional art on 278 feet of paper....covering the walls of a NYC hotel room. Molly takes her unique and engaging style (as well as her sanity, I believe) to the limits within the confines of those walls and the results are phenomenal! There's only so much I can put to words about this book, and The Artiste Extraordinaire herself. You really need to experience it for yourself. I only wish I would have gotten the chance to see the room from the inside. This book will leave you wanting the same.... My copy of The Art of Molly Crabapple Volume 1: Week in Hell sits proudly on my bookcase with the good company of H.R. Giger, Frank Frazetta, Clive Barker, Ben Templesmith, Dave Stevens and many others.Read more ›
For unknown reasons.. I am literally pulled into mollys work. This book is great showing her creative process and ideas from her surrondings. She initially set it up as a kickstart and it got over funded for this project. This is the result of it. Luckily enough, I made it to a book signing of hers and got an autograped copy. Recommend this book to anyone who wants to look at the world from an artists eyes...
I must say that having recently become an admirer of Molly Crabapple's provocative, delightful and totally engaging art work I was astonished to see that no one has written a review of Week In Hell... until now. This wild excursion into Molly's psyche consists of her deciding at the ripe old age of 28 to spend about 1 week in a NYC hotel room and do nothing but draw whatever came into her mind (and into her room), including some rather remarkable folks on all the walls (and TV) of that hotel room. Lest you be afraid that that would be vandalism or some form of interiorized Graffiti, Molly was kind enough to actually spare the walls of the room directly and secretly brought in enough drawing paper to cover all the walls (over 270 square feet!). She worked nonstop over 14 hours daily (except when she needed a shot of single malt whiskey, Champagne or Absinthe) and photographed this event in every possible way so that her art work could be well displayed in this concise but beautifully rendered little book. You will be amazed at the remarkable detail, vivid imagery, incredibly funny comments and you will just smile at every page. There will be a few pages that will have you open your mouth in astonishment as well. It is that good! Simply spend a few bucks and get something (this little book) that will give you street cred as an admirer of contemporary fine art in a unique way. It will be well worth it. No, I am not the printer of the book!
