Cover from about 8 years ago.

Bought this from a person who said he got it signed in person in Cologne Germany in 2000. He also sent another pic showing the autograph he got personalized to himself.

What do you think? Real or fake?

I’ll have random moments where I get lost in an emotional reverie over Elliott. I listen to his music all the time but that doesn’t always force me to think about the reality of his life and his tragic story. Looking at this graphic for long enough consistently brings me to that place.

I don’t think it’s simply because it’s a sad looking picture with sad colors. Somehow representing him in this reduced way where we only see his most recognizable parts, to me, captures him more clearly than even his actual photos. He’s a bright spot on a wasteland. Elliott had that kind of relationship with the world. It was uninhabitable to him yet all the better, and happier, for him being in it.

His minimalist caricature also has an element of mythology to it, as if he’s some worn and faded old legend relegated to a dusty page in a history book. I think that gets at the heart of it. This image plainly communicates the fact that this is history, cemented and final, and no longer an unfolding story. And that makes me sad.