Ok, I lied. I’m doing a three-part series (not two) on illustrator Elizabeth Graeber.  If you look up in the header of this blog, you’ll see the words, “because we have too many photos.”  Well, we mean it.  In today’s segment I want to focus on drawings Graeber made of Adrian Parsons, local artist and Worn Magazine cover boy; Chris Chen, a photographer known as Furcafe (aka Mr. Ubiquity, aka Mr. Omnipresent); and finally, me.

It’s been a long time since someone drew my likeness.  In college a friend invoked an unflattering hybrid of Groucho Marx and Dustin Hoffman.  It was a real ego boost.  Since then I’ve graduated to a blend of Bill Murray and Adrian Brody, but Graeber gave me an image of myself I’ve never seen before.  ”It’s not you,” she says, suggesting how her drawings of real people combine with her imagination to create a brand new two dimensional persona.  As I write this post, this fictional character, based on me, now sits atop my bookshelf and sings a raven nevermore.

In exchange, I left Graeber with an unpeeled polaroid portrait.  I took the picture, gave it to her and got in the car.  Two minutes later I texted her to peel it and she said it looked cool.  This exercise reminded me how ironic photography is.  A printed picture might get lost, damaged or destroyed over time, but the light reflected off this artist will last forever.

In my closing post later this week I’ll focus on specific books and illustrations Graeber has produced, but you should also know about Project Dispatch and the nascent (as the Post’s Melissa McCart recently described us) Bored of Trade.  Both are a collective of artists who band together to sell their work.  In the case of Project Dispatch, you can buy a three-, six- or 12-month subscription to Graeber or another artist and receive original artwork from them for between $20-$50 per month.  Several artists on the site, including Furcafe, reside in Washington, DC, but many dot the Eastern seaboard or reside further west.  It’s the perfect device to start an art collection and support an emerging artist.

Photo Credits: Joshua Yospyn/Worn Magazine (please ask permission to use our images)

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