New York Times piece, 2004

Wedding Day, 1990

Just in time for Eve’s and my twentieth wedding anniversary, here is a selection of illustrations in which I have used our family as models (a tradition which goes back at least as far as Norman Rockwell). First, Eve and the children pose for a Modern Love piece in the New York Times, about a family abandoned by the father. It appears that Ben is a bit grumpy at having to stand in for a nine year old girl.
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Joe's House. Acrylic on world globe by David Chelsea, 2008. Not for sale. Photo by Tom Lechner. tomlechner.com/

This is the largest and most elaborate spherical painting I have done to date, and the first actual commission. It was painted for Joe Erceg, and depicts the interior of his house. Joe is possibly my oldest friend, in that he knew my parents before I was born. Since the 1960s Joe has been one of Portland’s leading graphic designers, and now runs his firm Joseph Erceg Graphic Design with his son Matt. Longtime Portlanders may remember the giant butterfly painting designed by Joe which once covered the side of the Fleischner Building in Old Town.
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Snow Angel, the story I originally drew for the cancelled anthology Snow Stories, now has a new home at Dark Horse Presents. The first issue of the new print incarnation of Dark Horse’s flagship anthology is due to appear in March. Read all about it in this interview with publisher Mike Richardson, which includes a sample page from Snow Angel along with work by Paul Chadwick, Michael Gilbert and Robert Love.
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When the temperature hits the 90s in Portland the most comfortable spot in my house is the basement. Last week was a scorcher, so I decided that  the moment had come for a major cleanup and reorganization down cellar. This involved sweeping away years of cobwebs, throwing away burned-out fireplace grates and towel racks ripped out during bathroom renovation, and finally unpacking the last boxes remaining from when Eve and I moved here in 1995. Inside one of them was a handful of old letters with decorated envelopes I sent to Eve over the years, which I’m adding to the batch my friend Geoff Seaman gave me after he moved last year. The top envelope is a portrait of the lovely Eve done before we were married; the four faces on the long narrow one belong to the vocal group The Bobs. I’ve also included a couple of envelopes sent to my grandmother, which my mother recently found in a box in dead storage.
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Just in time for his Bar Mitzvah on Saturday, here are three Lightwave animations by my son Ben on Youtube:

When Robots Fight,
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Also, belatedly, Lena Horne:

Both caricatures from The New York Observer, year unknown.

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Double hemisphere painting by David Chelsea adapted from photographic panorama by Tom Lechner. Acrylic on paper, 2008.

I based this view of Portland’s Ira Keller Fountain on a 360º panorama by photographer Tom Lechner, which he had printed on a paper model of a rhombic triacontahedron, a thirty-sided geometric solid approximating a sphere. Originally known as the Forecourt Fountain, it was designed by the architect Lawrence Halprin and dedicated in 1970,  You can view a large image of the painting here.
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Comic Art Battle at Cosmic Monkey

The Stumptown Comics Fest is something of a yearly ritual for me, a chance to meet the reading public and reconnect with out-of-town friends I otherwise never see (Maryland cartoonist Carla Speed McNeil immediately noticed that I was walking without a cane; I had forgotten that last year I was still getting over a broken leg.).
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