Molly Crabapple
Molly Crabapple drew her way through Morocco and Kurdistan, and once into a Turkish jail.Later, during a stint as a burlesque dancer, she saw plain women emerging from the club’s dressing room as goddesses. Through paint, feathers, and pasties, they made themselves gorgeous. Theirs was beauty as a garment, a shell, and a mask.In the two time periods Crabappledraws from most, Victorian England and Rococo France, public lives were often as artificial as a burlesque dancer’s face. Crabapple’s characters are creatures of the polished surface. They’re molded by ornament and sometimes trapped inside. But as with any mask, there’s a face underneath. And the face in Crabapple’s work is smirking. For any mask, or mask-like society, has a weakness. If you want to crack it, you only have to laugh.