David Chelsea's Blog

Ponds & Sunflowers by Lolita Celsi At Curb Gallery

Some of you have already seen my mother’s gorgeous landscape, pond, flower and still life paintings – maybe on your very own walls! At an age when most people would be content to say their best work is behind them, Lolita Marie Celsi continues to explore the nuances of color, water and sky, producing better and better paintings, literally all the time!
Nothing brings life, color and purpose to a room like a Lolita Celsi painting! Her next gallery show opens Thursday, July 3rd and runs through July at Curb Gallery, 424 NW 12th Avenue.

Ponds & Sunflowers by Lolita Celsi
Curb Gallery, 424 NW 12th Av. Portland, OR

July 3-31, 2025

Come to the opening on First Thursday, July 3rd 2025 from 6-9 pm. I’ll be there for sure!

RIP, Matthew Courtney

I don’t know if a lot of you know, but Matthew Courtney recently passed away due to an accidental drug overdose in New York. Matthew straddles the line between celebrity and friend. As the host of the long running open mike at ABC No Rio, (where I honed my deservedly forgotten performance art act), a published poet, and also an announcer on Comedy Central, Matthew was eminent enough to get his picture in the papers – the Village Voice, at least. But he was also enough of a friend that I occasionally hired him as a model for illustration reference. This image comes from a Voice review of a play Matthew appeared in.

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Matthew had a sense of humor and a laid-back stage presence, something rare in the self-serious downtown poetry scene. His razor sharp Bob Hope timing is on display in this performance clip of Matthew in his prime.

As part of my long running series of memorial portraits, I posted this End Strip on Patreon.

Posters For Sale!

Mark your calendar! I’m having an exhibit of early posters and comics pages, mostly vintage prints but some originals, drawn in the 1970s and 1980s in Portland, when I was still signing my work David Celsi. Many of these have been posted on Patreon over the years, but this will be a golden opportunity to see them In Real Life, and possibly take one home!

Many of these advertise local theater productions, usually at the Storefront Theater, or band concerts, usually by the Holy Modal Rounders:

The Useless Poster from 1976 is an early conceptual art piece– a flyer advertising no event at all, which I stapled to telephone poles anyway, just for the fun of it. My reference was a silent film-era still of a starlet standing on a peacock chair, but I changed her face to that of Ann McFarlane, a girl who went to my high school. In our little world, Ann was something of a starlet herself:

The show will be at Portland’s Curb Gallery in the Pearl District, the same gallery which recently had a show of my mother’s paintings. 424 NW 12th Ave, Portland, OR 97210, for the month of November. Opening is November 7th, 2024. Not sure of the time, but it’s probably safe to come at 6. It’s two days after the election. I hope people will be in a good mood!

24 #24?

I’ve been lax in posting new comics to Patreon over the past few weeks, but I have been absorbed in my new project, the Vortex graphic novel, trying to keep to my self-imposed quota of two pages a week (I’m now at page 40). I will be posting work in progress presently when I get more comfortable with where I am on my schedule.

Something else comics-related is looming on the horizon. 24 Hour Comic Day is traditionally the first Saturday in October. To draw a 24 Hour Comic, the cartoonist stays awake for an entire day, drawing one page an hour, until the following morning. If I draw one this year, it would be my 24th (did I mention that I appear to be the record holder for most 24 Hour Comics drawn?)

It’s been two years since my last 24 Hour Comic, which was a benefit for Hipbone Studio. I am considering whether to do another one this year as a benefit for Democratic candidates, chiefly Kamala Harris, but also those crucial down-ballot races which will determine control of the House and Senate. Once again, this election is the most crucial in our lifetime, democracy is on the ballot, etc. etc. Supporters typically pledge a dollar a page, but some pledge more.
One factor inclining me to climb this particular mountain again is some interesting numerology. Since this 24 hour comic would be my 24th, it leads me to the concept of a plan for what I might draw.

I’m thinking to title the next story This Fabulous Century, and make it a history of the past 24 years, devoting one page to each year in the 21st century (actually, that would make for 25 pages because if you start with 2000 there are 25 years up to and including 2024, but I’ll figure out something). It would be a challenge to fit this into my busy schedule, but this occasion with its convergence of 24s- year, page count, and number in the sequence- will never happen again, and of course, this IS the most significant election in our lifetime.

To tip the scales, I’m taking the numerology one step further. If I can reach the level of 24 supporters willing to pledge at the level of at least one dollar per page, I’ll go ahead. This would raise the grand total of $576, enough to tip the vote in a close race! I’ll also take it on if I can get fewer than 24 contributors, but raise at least $576. 24 hour comic day is Saturday October 5th 2024. I’ll give it until September 28th, one week from the date, to decide. Send an email through this site if you want to be a part of comics history. Supporters get a signed hard copy of the finished comic, or a file if you don’t have room on your shelves.

RIP, Shelley Duvall

I have had a crush on Shelley Duvall since I was a teenager, so I have an abundance of renderings to choose from. Below are some decorated envelopes sent to friends over the years:

I also put Shelley, along with Roxanne costars Steve Martin and Darryl Hannah, in my occasional Patreon comics series Anapest Mashup (the song lyrics come from “Vive La Compagnie”, a traditional ballad, and “Roxanne” by the Police).

I posted another RIP End Strip last week on Patreon. The image below is after a screen cap from one of Shelley’s best films, Thieves Like Us:

Vortex I: The Blog Post

I have been dropping hints on social media for over a year on this, but now it’s official: my next comics project is going to be a graphic novel about Vortex I, the 1970 rock festival sponsored by the State of Oregon. I had been doing preliminary work on the project- scripting, character designs, sample pages- but what has tipped this over from hobby to vocation is an early birthday gift from Uncle Sam, in the form of a $4000 grant from the Regional Arts & Culture Council. Now I HAVE to draw the thing or I’ll be cheating the taxpayers!

Vortex I in a nutshell, from the Oregon Encyclopedia:

“During the war-hot summer of 1970, thousands of young people began streaming toward Clackamas County’s Milo McIver State Park to attend Vortex I, a state-sponsored rock-music festival. Ed Westerdahl, chief of staff to Governor Tom McCall, had selected the 847-acre site, some thirty miles southeast of Portland. The park provided all the advantages that Westerdahl sought—a rural setting, proximity to Portland, and easy driving distance from Interstate 5. The festival was strategically planned to attract young anti-Vietnam war protestors who otherwise might descend on Portland to disrupt the American Legion’s annual convention, which would begin on Sunday, August 30.”

Governor Tom McCall

This, it will be remembered, was only a few months after antiwar protests at Kent State had ended in the shooting of four students by National Guardsmen. There was every expectation that protest would turn bloody at the American Legion convention, especially given that the featured speaker was President Richard Nixon. Vortex was a diversionary tactic on the part of Governor McCall specifically to siphon longhairs away from the Portland area, which is why you don’t read in the history books about the Portland riots of 1970. I was 11 when it happened, not necessarily too young to go myself, except that I didn’t have hippy parents. I had long remembered the story, but my interest was sparked by listening to a an episode about Vortex on the Omnibus podcast with Ken Jennings and John Roderick. I realized that there was enough story here for a full length graphic novel.

Omnibus episode about Vortex

Scene from Vortex I

My plan at present is to keep to a quota of two pages a week. Since the script as outlined comes to nearly two hundred pages, I expect this will take around two years. Since I am in negotiations with a major comics publisher to bring it out in book form, I won’t be posting finished pages anywhere yet, but I will share character designs, sample pages, and possibly drawing demos of individual panels. I’ll try to keep posting comics on Patreon on the usual Monday and Thursday schedule, but they may be on the sketchy side.

I’ve posted few pieces of sample art on Patreon. Here is a test panel of Governor McCall making his decision:

A scene at Vortex:

So far I am ahead of schedule. I’ve already completed 20 pages. I can show a little bit of finished art. Here are some panels of Oregonians responding to McCall’s speech announcing Vortex:
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The technique here is combining line art with gray watercolor tones. To get a 1970s feel, I’ve gone back to my go-to drawing tool from my teens and 20s- the kind of technical pen generically called a rapidograph. It has a nice flow, until it inevitably clogs, but I’ve found that flushing the nib with alcohol before each use helps a lot!

Samples posted to Patreon:

Title Page
McCall
Oval Office
Vortex Emcee
Vortex Trailer
Traffic Jam
Testing Three Kinds Of Paper
Grace At Vortex
Couples
Balloon Test

Keep watching this space!

My First Tattoo

When I say my first tattoo, I don’t mean on my personal skin, you understand- I don’t want to foreclose the possibility of one day being buried in a Jewish cemetery- but Brandon Smith of Tellico Plains, Tennessee was so taken with this 1977 gag cartoon I drew for Chic Magazine that he has chosen to carry it around with him always.

Here is the cartoon in its original form. It appeared in CHIC Magazine (Larry Flynt’s glossier, up-scale companion mag to HUSTLER) in 1977:

Memory is hazy, but I believe it was in this issue:

I have long had three benchmarks for having arrived as an artist with genuine impact on the culture. One is being asked for a blurb– that actually happened a decade or so with an artist named Tony Morgan. A tattoo is the second. The third would be my own Wikipedia page (not yet). When I say my first tattoo, I have to add that I know of. For all I know, someone may already be walking around with Minnie or Snow Angel ink. Anyone bearing an unauthorized David Chelsea tattoo should feel free to contact me, ideally with pictures!

When Airplanes Land

My very talented nephew Ivan Pyzow recently recorded and released a lovely new song which includes cover art by me. I’ll let Ivan tell it:

Ivan

“It’s my birthday. I released a song today. I hope you take four quiet minutes and listen to it. It’s about trying hard as a parent, having failed as a partner, missing someone, high-stakes moments in liminal spaces, and flying through the air. If it moves you, I hope you tell me what you think or send it to someone you know.

Recorded by @_maidenking_ and mixed by @bri_holland. If you want your tracks to sound this good, call me and I’ll sing their praises to you and convince you to hire them. Thank you to @gentle.bear.studio for the space for a day to track this live on a grand piano.

“When Airplanes Land” by Pyzow! on all streaming platforms.
It was fun being in my thirty and I’m excited to move into my thirties and keep singing and dancing with everyone I know. Hoping to sing with you soon.

Thank you to the @school_of_song course with @kimbramusic that prompted me to write this song.”

Like the art I did for Ivan’s previous song In My Dreams, You Win, this image recycles an illustration previously done for a New York Times Modern Love column (in this case it was a piece titled “Live Without Me. I’ll Understand”, which appeared in December 2006. You can read it here, but the archived version no longer includes the illustration).

This new version involves some major Photoshop surgery. Ivan asked me to remove the skeleton hand, and have the airplane flying through an eyeball made of cloudy chemtrails stuff. Here’s the rough we agreed on:

A few filters applied, and some generative fill, and voila, the new version:

So many links to choose from! How about listening to When Airplanes Land on Youtube?

Those We’ve Lost

Regular visitors to my Patreon page are aware that for most of a decade I have been posting End Strips, that is, short narrative and non-narrative comics drawn on strips of paper left over from other projects, in a vertical format which looks good on phones.

These are in several subsets: palindromes, random song lyrics that happen to be in Anapest format, and also collections of celebrity portraits portraits of celebrities whose names happen to begin with the same two letters: HE, RA, JE, etc.

After I heard of the death of actress Anne Heche last year I thought I’d go into my HE clippings file and do an End Strip including her portrait along with a bunch of other celebrities whose surnames begin with He. However, I discovered that there was a folder within the file entirely devoted to people named Heche- unsurprisingly, she’s the only one. I decided to paint a watercolor strip entirely of Anne Heche portraits using pictures from the folder as reference. I think this came out well, so I continued with further celebrity obituary strips- those famous people do keep dying!

I set some rules of for myself- I use only clippings already in the folder. No fair going to Google Images for new pics, though previously printed images from the internet are ok. Here are a few notable celebrities I’ve memorialized. Queen Elizabeth II:

Sinead O’Connor:

Former Congresswoman Pat Schroeder:

Tony Bennett:

Here’s a list of everyone I’ve covered so far, with links to the strips on Patreon:

Anne Heche
Nancy Swartz (not exactly a celebrity, just a friend and former roommate)
Robbie Coltrane
Tom Sizemore
Matthew Perry
Tony Bennett
Queen Elizabeth II
Pat Schroeder
Loretta Lynn
Jerry Lee Lewis
Paul Reubens
Sinead O’Connor
Mikhail Gorbachev
Harry Belafonte
Angela Lansbury
Kirstie Alley
Barbara Walters
Pope Benedict XVI
Lisa Marie Presley
Burt Bacharach
Martin Amis
Tina Turner
Treat Williams
Glenda Jackson
Raquel Welch
Alan Arkin
Dianne Feinstein
Robbie Robertson
Suzanne Somers
Sandra Day O’Connor (second O’Connor this year!)
Henry Kissinger

Patreon is a reader-supported site, but all comics content is free. If you like what you see, tell your friends, and $how Your $upport!

Earthlings One Night Only At Cinema 21

Copied from Steve Doughton’s Instagram:

“ILY2 Presents Earthlings Nov 6, 7:15 pm. One night only at Cinema 21 along with some of my selected short films. Tickets available at cinema21.com Sincere thanks to Allie Furlotti, Jeanine Jablonski and everyone who helped make this movie.

Ticket proceeds go to The Oregon Worker’s Relief Fund.

Poster by David Chelsea”

Earthlings is a film by my friend Steve Doughton that I worked on in a number of capacities: poster artist, animating a sequence thanking Kickstarter donors, and adding heat shimmer and rain to a few scenes in Adobe After Effects.

Here are some screencaps from the animated sequence, also done in After Effects:

Earthlings was shot in 2019 and was due to hit the festival circuit in 2020 when COVID shut everything down. Aged like a fine wine, this movie is now receiving its belated Portland debut at the Cinema 21 on Monday, November 6th. The movie stars James Le Gros, Tina Holmes, Luis Chávez, and Kelvin Han Yee. I, for one, can’t wait to see my animation on the big screen!

Earthlings, one night only

Monday, November 6th at 7:15 pm

Cinema 21, 616 NW 21st Ave, Portland, OR 97209

Get tickets