Molly Crabapple Quotes

Powerful Molly Crabapple for Daily Growth

About Molly Crabapple

Molly Crabapple is a prolific artist, writer, and activist, renowned for her powerful and thought-provoking work that often tackles political and social issues. Born on November 16, 1983, in New York City, Crabapple's artistic journey began at a young age when she was diagnosed with juvenile arthritis. This period of illness and isolation served as a catalyst for her creative pursuits, fostering an intense passion for art and storytelling. Crabapple attended the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan before studying studio art at Pratt Institute. However, her formal education was cut short when she became homeless at 20 years old. This difficult period significantly influenced her work, with themes of survival, struggle, and resilience becoming recurring motifs in her art. In the late 2000s, Crabapple gained notoriety as a live sketch artist for various political events, including the Democratic National Convention in Denver and the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. Her drawings captured the raw energy and emotion of these events, earning her recognition in mainstream media. Crabapple's major works include the graphic novel "Brotherhood" (2012), a collaboration with journalist David Axe that documents the experiences of Syrian refugees, and "Drawings from Wartime" (2013), which chronicles her visits to the Middle East during the Arab Spring. Her most recent book, "The Third Hand" (2019), is an autobiographical account of her life, career, and activism. In addition to her visual art, Crabapple is also a respected writer. Her essays have appeared in publications such as The New York Times, The Guardian, and Rolling Stone. She is a passionate advocate for artists' rights and has been involved in various campaigns to support freelancers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Molly Crabapple continues to push boundaries and challenge perceptions through her art, writing, and activism. Her work serves as a powerful testament to the transformative power of creativity and the importance of empathy and compassion in our society.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"Art is a weapon, a tool for change."

This quote by Molly Crabapple emphasizes the power of art as an agent for social transformation and change. It suggests that artistic expression can be more than just aesthetic pleasure; it can serve as a means to challenge the status quo, provoke thought, inspire action, and ultimately bring about positive changes in society. Art, thus, becomes a tool for activism, advocacy, and empathy-building, empowering individuals and communities to question, resist, and reshape their world.


"Every artist can remember the first time they were told their dreams weren't valid. They can remember the moments when their ambitions made them seem weak, naive, foolish, or mad. But art isn't frivolous, it's not unrealistic, and it's not selfish. It is vital."

Molly Crabapple's quote highlights the challenges and criticism artists often face when pursuing their dreams and ambitions, which are often perceived as frivolous, unrealistic, weak, naive, or even mad by society. However, she emphasizes that art is not only essential but also vital. This means it is necessary for human existence, rather than being a luxury or a whim. The quote encourages artists to persevere in the face of such discouragement and reminds us all of the crucial role that artistic expression plays in our society and personal lives.


"Art is not a luxury, but a necessity of the human spirit."

This quote emphasizes that art is not an optional or indulgent activity, but a fundamental aspect of human nature and well-being. Just as food, shelter, and water are essential for survival, so too is self-expression and creativity through art. Art provides a means to explore emotions, convey ideas, and connect with others. It's a powerful tool for understanding ourselves and the world around us, fostering empathy, and promoting cultural preservation and development. In essence, art is a vital part of what makes us human.


"There are no rules. There are only wrong choices."

This quote, by artist Molly Crabapple, suggests that there are no absolute or rigid principles guiding all situations. Instead, it implies that every choice has potential consequences, some of which may be considered 'wrong' if they lead to negative outcomes. The freedom to choose lies in our ability to make decisions, knowing that the choices we make may not always align perfectly with societal norms or rules. However, what truly matters is the lessons learned from those choices and the growth that results from them.


"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but so are ugliness, cruelty, and indifference."

This quote by Molly Crabapple suggests that our perceptions of beauty, as well as negative traits like ugliness, cruelty, or indifference, are subjective. It implies that these qualities are not inherently objective, but rather shaped by individual perspectives, experiences, and values. Essentially, the quote underscores the importance of understanding that personal biases can influence our interpretations of the world around us.


Burlesque girls were alchemists. They were steel-tough performers who were willing to use kitchens as dressing rooms, haul their costume bags through the snow, and go into debt over fake diamonds, all for the five minutes onstage when they were goddesses.

- Molly Crabapple

Diamonds, Through, Rooms, Performers

When you're an outsider, you don't have loyalties to anyone, so you can be cruelly honest if need be. The more you get inside, the more you are involved in polite networks of professional coercion that make people less honest.

- Molly Crabapple

Need, Loyalties, Polite, Coercion

Historically, the women who have been the great painters of the canon have very often have been the wives or daughters of supportive men. Like Artemisia, whose father was a very established painter. I will say that the two current contemporary artists I admire the most are women: Kara Walker and Swoon.

- Molly Crabapple

Supportive, Been, Very, Canon

The problem with doing physically ambitious art is that to view it, you still have to be in your physical body.

- Molly Crabapple

Art, Doing, Still, Physical Body

Sketching in general - anywhere, not just in Gitmo, but in life, in the world - is a profoundly disruptive act. Because you're creating something when you're kind of expected to consume or sit passively. I've always sketched things as a way to get into them, whether it was a fancy nightclub or, you know, to have kids think I was cool, whatever.

- Molly Crabapple

Fancy, Consume, Profoundly, Disruptive

Sketching is like dancing. It's process as much as product. You can turn your head off and just sort of dissolve into the now. Doing a giant, super thought-out painting is the opposite of that.

- Molly Crabapple

Dancing, Process, Product, Dissolve

Objectifying is kind of a funny thing. Art is objectification, all art, because you're taking someone and making them into an object. But people can also talk back more to you when you're sketching them. They can look at you and say, 'Oh man, you got me wrong.'

- Molly Crabapple

Me, Back, Got, Object

I am lucky because I do fine art, and that is half of my living. And then illustration provides the other half.

- Molly Crabapple

Art, Lucky, Other, Illustration

I think Picasso was someone who took art's powers of consuming, its powers of much-ness and multiplicity, and used that to his fullest extent. That's something that was permitted to men, obviously, much more than women, but was also permitted in the past much more often than now.

- Molly Crabapple

Used, Extent, Multiplicity, Permitted

I was involved in Occupy Wall Street as a participant and poster artist. 'Shell Game' is an attempt to do something bigger, to use whatever artistic powers I have to explore the excitements and betrayals of that year.

- Molly Crabapple

Game, Occupy Wall Street, Poster

Art is for the elite because it has a very high price-point of entry. And when one is in that social strata, they look down at illustrators because they just draw things directly for a few hundred dollars, and that's seen as being a bit grubby. Galleries allow artists to stay relatively divorced from the financial aspects of their trade.

- Molly Crabapple

Very, Allow, Hundred, Divorced

I'm an artist and a journalist. I travel around the world very often for 'Vice Magazine,' and I draw and I write about prisons, about conflict zones.

- Molly Crabapple

Very, Vice, I Write, Prisons

I think that school just isn't for everyone. A lot of people don't learn well when they're - have to sit in a place for eight hours. A lot of people learn best lying in their own bed, teaching themselves from books. And I was a bad student. I was a brat. If I was a teacher, I would not have liked myself.

- Molly Crabapple

Bad, Bed, I Think, Brat

Working as a model liberated me from ever having to hold a day job. I transitioned from doing that to working full-time as an artist. If you're 19 and living cheap, being an artist model can sustain you.

- Molly Crabapple

Doing, Full-Time, Having, Sustain

My technique of working is I go around with my iPhone and with my sketchbook. I take thousands and thousands and thousands of iPhone photos. I also draw from life. I can draw really, really, really fast. It's a way that I build a rapport with people.

- Molly Crabapple

Rapport, Go, Technique, iPhone

My real name - my real name is Jennifer Caban.

- Molly Crabapple

Name, Real, Jennifer, Real Name

Art is much more confined by materials than writing is.

- Molly Crabapple

Art, More, Confined, Materials

I'm an artist, and I love the visual. Fashion is high art sometimes and hack work other times, but it's something worthy of study and love.

- Molly Crabapple

Love, Art, Other, Hack

You're demonstrating your own skills in a vulnerable way when you draw.

- Molly Crabapple

Skills, Own, Your, Vulnerable

The type of work I do, which is often called 'Pop Surrealism,' is very separate from Gagosian and Mary Boone type of gallery art.

- Molly Crabapple

Art, Very, Which, Gallery

I travel so much that when I'm not traveling, I'm just kind of curled up in a ball here, not wanting to leave or see anyone.

- Molly Crabapple

Kind, Here, Wanting, Just Kind

The first time I made any money, I was 27. I went to Bergdorf's looking like a proper guttersnipe and bought a pair of Louboutins. I'd wear them and an old ink-stained kimono and make my drawings and feel indomitable.

- Molly Crabapple

Feel, Wear, Proper, Drawings

I'm only the third artist who's ever drawn at Gitmo.

- Molly Crabapple

Artist, Third, Ever, Drawn

I grew up in Far Rockaway and then Long Island.

- Molly Crabapple

Island, Far, Up, Long Island

No painting is ever not an infinitely reproducible image any more.

- Molly Crabapple

Image, Ever, Infinitely, Painting

I've become increasingly agoraphobic.

- Molly Crabapple

Become, Increasingly

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