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When one looks in the box, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the cat.

Reactor

Many of you know Molly Crabapple’s art from her many graphic novel/webcomic collaborations with writer/fellow artist, John Leavitt—projects like Scarlett Takes Manhattan, Backstage at Act-i-Vate, and Puppet Makers at Zuda. You might also know her as the founder of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School, a life drawing class that features burlesque performers as models and has set up shop in cities worldwide (This photo* features Molly and friend/muse/frequent Dr. Sketchy’s model, Amber Ray). But did you know that you can also wear her artwork?

Well, you can!

Molly has recently partnered with Dirtee Hollywood to create a line of t-shirts featuring her unique, Victorian-era-inspired artwork. When I asked her why she decided to do this, she said, “I love the challenge of working in multiple media. My art’s been on everything from theatre curtains to perfume bottles, children’s books and body paint. When Dirtee Hollywood approached me and gave me complete aesthetic freedom to corrupt their t-shirt line with curvaceous Victorian tarts, I was in heaven.”

Last month, I had the pleasure of attending her t-shirt launch party at Atrium in NYC. You’ll see some of that in this video**, as well as a bit more about why Molly went the t-shirt route and the process of designing Atrium’s store windows for the event. If you look closely at about 2:07, you’ll see me with my hair pulled back in a red and black shirt carrying a small, yellow Atrium bag containing my newly-purchased bit of awesome from the Molly Crabapple collection:

As guests mingled and sketched the models in tiny sketchpads they were given upon arrival, Molly held court and, over the course of the evening, created a new piece of art. It was a great event filled with artsy-ness, tiny cupcakes, and beautiful models who also happen to be incredibly smart and have a million things going on. I marveled at the fact that my geeky world and the fashion world were not colliding, but meshing. And most importantly, I discovered that you don’t have to be or look like a burlesque performer to rock these shirts. Below is a photo*** of me in my Molly Crabapple shirt! (Yes, I was at roller derby. Go Queens of Pain!) I’m no Amber Ray, but I’m cute as hell, and the shirt is extremely comfy! Molly Crabapple’s Dirtee Hollywood shirts are for everyone and can be rocked by fashionistas and geeky-types alike!

*Party photos by Peter James Zielinski

**Video by Alex Chancey of Pareidolia Films

***Photo of Teresa Jusino by Robin Dreifus


Teresa Jusino was born on the same day that Skylab fell. Coincidence? She doesn’t think so. Her “feminist brown person” take on pop culture has been featured on websites like PinkRaygun.com, PopMatters.com, and CentralBooking.com (edited by Kevin Smokler). She is currently working on several fiction projects, including a web series for Pareidolia Films called The Pack, which she hopes to debut by the end of the year! Get Twitterpated with Teresa, Follow The Pack or visit her at The Teresa Jusino Experience.

About the Author

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Teresa Jusino

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Teresa Jusino was born the day Skylab fell. Coincidence? She doesn't think so. A native New Yorker, Jusino has been telling stories since she was three years old, and she wrote a picture book in crayon in nursery school. However, nursery school also found her playing the angel Gabriel in a Christmas pageant, and so her competing love of performing existed from an early age. Her two great loves competed all the way through early adulthood. She attended NYU's Tisch School of the Arts where she majored in Drama and English Literature, after which she focused on acting, performing in countless plays and musicals in and around New York City, as well as short films, feature length independent films, and the one time she got to play an FBI agent in a PBS thing, which she thought was really cool, because she got to wear sunglasses and a dark suit and look badass. Eventually, producing was thrown into the mix. For four years, she was a company member and associate producer for a theater company called Stone Soup Theater Arts. She also produced a musical in which she also performed at Theater For the New City called Emergency Contraception: The Musical! by Sara Cooper, during which she ended every performance covered in fake blood. Don't ask. After eight years of acting, Jusino decided that she missed her first love – writing – and in 2008 decided to devote herself wholly to that pursuit. She has since brought her "feminist brown person" perspective to pop culture criticism at such diverse sites as Tor.com, ChinaShop Magazine, PopMatters, Newsarama, Pink Raygun, as well as her own blog, The Teresa Jusino Experience (teresajusino.wordpress.com), and her Tumblr for feminist criticism, The Gender Blender (tumblwithteresa.tumblr.com). She is also the editor of a Caprica fan fiction site called Beginning of Line (beginningofline.weebly.com), because dammit, that was a good show, and if SyFy won't tell any more of those characters' stories, she'll do it herself. Her travel-writer alter ego is Geek Girl Traveler, and her travel articles can be followed at ChinaShop while she herself can be followed on Twitter (@teresajusino). Her essay, "Why Joss is More Important Than His 'Verse" can be found in the book Whedonistas: A Celebration of the Worlds of Joss Whedon By the Women Who Love Them (Mad Norwegian Press). In addition to her non-fiction, Jusino is also a writer of fiction. Her short story, December, was published in Issue #24 of the sci-fi literary journal, Crossed Genres. A writer of both prose and film/television scripts, she relocated to Los Angeles in September 2011 to give the whole television thing a whirl. She'll let you know how that goes just as soon as she stops writing bios about herself in the third person.
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