“Art was a stranger making eyes through the smoke of a foreign dive bar”
Drawing Blood is such an engaging read that I couldn’t put the book down until I had devoured all of its contents and yet, there were so many lines and passages to savor and to reread, so many artworks by Molly to let your eyes linger over. This may not be an art catalogue but it’s probably the most beautifully illustrated memoir I’ve ever read. Some passages I had read in the reviews or articles by Molly over the past week but they were even more enjoyable the second time around placed in context and elaborated on more fully.
I came to Molly’s work after she was both writing and creating visual works of art. She seemed so established, so sure by the time I encountered both her writing and her artworks that it was good to get the backstory on her journey as an artist and a writer. I’ve never had the privilege of meeting Molly or attending an exhibition of her work but she and many of the characters in her book seem so familiar as part of my mental landscape that in some ways reading the book was like visiting distant friends and filling in all the gaps of what they’ve been up to between the various stories they’ve told you, you heard about, or read in their Facebook posts.
“Fear is a doorway…”
Drawing Blood is a book that by the time you finish you’ve already thought of ten or twenty friends that you’d recommend the book to: young nieces and nephews to encourage them to dream of travel to distant lands; artist, writers, and poet friends who are toiling away in oblivion because it is either they must write, they must make art, or they will die inside; friends who are politically active in fighting against the status quo, against the establishment; friends who’ve grown cynical from the endless stream of headlines that make this feel like the darkest of times growing darker; to friends who compulsively color outside the lines; to women young and old who are fighting the patriarchy; and to friends who enjoy reading a good memoir.
“I began to find the art that came from my flaws as well as my virtues-that art as intrinsic and unfakeable as handwriting”
In reading Molly’s journey of becoming an artist and a writer I thought of William Blakes lines, “Improvement makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without Improvement, are roads of Genius”. Molly didn’t follow anyone else's prescribed path on her journey. She tested herself constantly and expanded herself by walking through the doors opened by facing her fears. She followed her curiosity wherever it led her. She never let anyone else define what it is to be a woman, to be an artist, or to simply be human though she took in a wide net of counsel.
“Come back tomorrow, gorgeous. We’ve always wanted our own Toulouse-Lautrec.”
I really had no clue about many of the scenes of the playgrounds of the wealthy (why would I) Molly describes but wow is it delicious to see them through her critical eyes. I’d want to time travel to these scenes just to see the art in the context for which they were created. Molly though does a wonderful job of recreating this for the reader. However, Molly’s never some court artist. She’s moved equally well in rural villages in Turkey as in the wild excesses of The Box.
Sometimes the muse “shows up at your doorway wearing black stockings & ties you to the bed.”
I’m of the school of thought that artist should be questioning the status quo, they should be pushing the boundaries of what society deems acceptable, for by doing so they expand the space we all live in. Vicarious as it may be it was good to journey with Molly as she pushed herself, as she put herself in situations where she wasn’t entirely comfortable and often not entirely safe.
“To see my art held on the streets meant more to me than to see it hanging in any gallery”
Molly has been identified as the Occupied movement’s most prominent artist. Drawing Blood helps put that label into flesh and blood context. It’’s not a label Molly gives herself and she pushes back where she’s being given credit that is due to others. Even so, she’s fully engaged with all her being in the times we live in and doesn’t shy away from confronting the monsters and the hypocrisy rather she finds that inside herself or on the street.
I found so much to enjoy in Drawing Blood that I’ll be getting a second copy that I can mark up an annotate on a second reading but I do want to keep one first edition spotless so that I can go back from time to time and look at the art and remember the inspiring day I spent with Molly reading Drawing Blood from cover to cover. In these dark times Drawing Blood is a ray of hope, though it’s far from pollyannish.
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About the author
Absolutely fascinating!
What a memoir! Gutsy, glorious, brilliantly insightful & revelatory - and did i say achingly beautiful? Can't wait for "Drawing More Blood" !
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2015
- Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2016
Top reviews from other countries
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BordsteinprosaReviewed in Germany on December 4, 2015
How to draw protest from the buttom of the heart // Wie man mit Herzblut zeichnend die Welt in Angriff nimmt
- Nic FerrierReviewed in the United Kingdom on January 11, 2016
Honest. Beautiful. Wonderful.
- Evren K.Reviewed in Germany on August 31, 2016
Offers great insights, will push you forward
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Ein KundeReviewed in Germany on February 9, 2016
Lebenserfahrung einer New Yorker Künstlerin
