Apparently, I was the courtroom sketch artist for the O.J. Simpson trial. I say "apparently" because I only found this out last week—when Dervish gave an unsolicited interview to a New York Times reporter who had called to ask about Sea Horses in the Olive Jar. Instead of discussing the book, Dervish launched into an elaborate story about how I sat in the courtroom for months, diligently drawing scenes from the trial, only to have all of my work rejected because, and I quote, “her sketches looked like raccoons caught in a wind tunnel.”
When the reporter asked if any of these alleged sketches still existed, Dervish waved the question off and said, “They were classified. National embarrassment. Marcia Clark sent a cease and desist letter written entirely in highlighter.”
I wasn’t mad. This is just Dervish doing Dervish—deflecting, spinning, and somehow promoting the book in the most counterintuitive way possible. And now that he’s planted this false memory in my head, I’ve decided to draw Marcia Clark anyway. For closure. Or maybe because I finally want credit for something I never did.
