Happy New Year Everyone!

Everyone's here, all together now!
 "Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind.."
 

So, it might seem a little corny, but sometimes, when you get together with your friends and family, sing a song together... it's a great way to share. Most of these are old folky songs, they're still fun, but maybe you have your own.
 

And the other theme of this calendar is circles (you noticed, huh?).  Circles of friends, song circles, conversation circles, circles of meaning, dance circles, drum circles, peace signs are circles, circling back to the simple things that mean the most.  Hope everyone has a happy and peaceful 2012.

the songs

1-You Are My Sunshine - Rice, Davis + Mitchell

2- Michael Row the Boat Ashore -traditional

3- Ship in the Sky - Woody Guthrie

4- Oh Mary don't you weep  -traditional

5- Zip a Dee doo Dah, Wrubel + Gilbert

6- So long, It's been Good to Know You - Woody Guthrie

7- Red River Valley -traditional

8- Wayfaring Stranger-traditional

9- Polly Wooly Doodle -traditional

10-This Land - Woody Guthrie

11-Yellow Rose of Texas- traditional.

12- Oh Susannah -Foster

13- Amelia Earhart- McEnery

14- Did you ever see a Lassie--traditional

15- Blowin' in the wind -Dylan

16- Here we go round the mulberry bush -traditional

17- She'll be Comin' Round the Mountain -traditional

18- This little light of mine -Loes

19-The Golden Vanity--traditional

20-The Dreidel Song - Grossman, Gelbert + Goldfarb

21- It's a grand old flag - Cohan
22- Winter Wonderland - Smith + Bernard
23- Bound for Glory - Woody Guthrie

24-Home Sweet Home - Bishop + Payne

25- We wish you a Merry Christmas -traditional

26- Old MacDonald -traditional

27- Sweet Betsy from Pike -traditional

28-Stars fell on Alabama Last night - Perkins + Parish

29- Twelve Days of Christmas -traditional

30- Down in the Valley -traditional

            Let's All Go Down to the River - Montgomery + Richards

31- Auld Lang Syne -traditional

Thirty

And, before we head into the last big celebration of the year, let's go with Harry down to the valley..
 "Down in the Valley, valley so low...."
 or maybe....
"Let's all go down to the river..."

twenty-nine

Sissie, like her old friend Miss Piggy, would like to remind you that it's the 5th day of Christmas..and
"on the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me 
Five Golden Rings.....

ba dum dum dum "

28

Ole Blue Eyes, crooning through the night.
 " And stars fell on Alabama last night..."

Siebenundzwanzig

Copper has gone off to foreign lands (what is that language anyway?)...

and I think I hear him singing:
 "Did you ever hear tell of sweet Betsy from Pike?"

Boxing Day

Shoefler says this piggy makes her want to sing "with an oink oink here, and an oink oink there.."  Maybe that's just the way a lot of us feel after all the holiday chocolates...

Christmas

Harry again..
 "We wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas..."

24

Shoefler's flying home, has to be there for Christmas eve...
 "Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home..."

twenty-three

Dotty B looks like she's the front of an old fashioned train...
 "This train is bound for glory, this train...."

winter?!

First Day of Winter!  Flipper and the Goldspot dragon are getting ready for snow.
 "Sleighbells ring, are you listening?  In the lane, snow is glistening..."

twenty-one

It's Harry Coe Bee, and he's feeling like a song and dance man..
 "It's a grand old flag, it's a high flying flag..."

Twenty

Looks like Skirty Rose is going to light a candle tonight...
 Happy Hanukkah!
 "Dreidel dreidel dreidel..." 

dix-neuf (oof!)

Ole Blinky's flying under water this time, wonder if he's going to try to help the cabin boy..
 "For I'm sinking in the Lowland, Lowland, Lowland,
 I'm sinking in the Lowland sea..."

Achtzehn

Flipper looks like he's in the spotlight...
 "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine..."

17

Rosey's back, and it looks like she came through the wormhole..
 "She'll be Comin' thru the wormhole when she comes....'

Sweet Sixteen

Oh wow, Sissie is going round and round a spiral..
 "Here we go round the mulberry bush..."

Ides of December

Ole Blinky seems to be in a wind tunnel...oh well,
 "the answer my friend, is blowin' in the wind..."

Fourteen

Rosey, doing what the arrows are telling her to do - dancing back and forth..
 "Did you ever see a Lassie go this way and that way...?"

13

Shoefler's flying across the ocean here, just like Amelia..
 "There's a ship out on the ocean, just a speck against the sky,
 Amelia Earhart flying high that day...."

twelve

Dotty B, with flying towers and that little bluebird...
 "Oh Susannah, Oh don't you cry for me,
 I come from Alabama with my banjo on my knee..."

Eleven

Copper's travelling somewhere...but are those stars lonestars...?
and a flying fish?
 "There's a yellow rose in Texas, that I am going to see.."

Ten

Ole Bue Eyes again, flying over the green farmlands...

(are those crop circles down there?)

"This land is your land, this land is my land, from California to the New York Island..."

number nine, number nine

Shoefler is going to fly right down that tunnel, maybe to Louisiana

(wonder if she'll find her other shoe...)

"Oh, I went down south for to see my Sal
Singing Polly Wolly Doodle all the day.."

acht-choo

Starship Flipper, feeling mournful,

"I am a poor wayfarin' stranger, travelling through this world of woe..."

Seven

Orangina B is back again..

"But remember the Red River Valley, and the Bee that has loved you so true.."

Six

It's Dragon Rose Lee, caught in the storm...

"It dusted us over, it dusted us under,

it blocked out the traffic, it blocked out the sun

and straight for home all he people did run,

singing So long, it's been good to know you...."

Five

"Mr Bluebird on my shoulder, it's the truth, it's factual,

everything is satisfactual..."

Ole Blue Eyes B  is really singing sweetly to that little bluebird (who seems to be everywhere!)

Four

Starship Ole Blinky, with that little bluebird, beside the river..

"Oh Mary, don't you weep don't you moan,

Pharoah's army got drownded, Oh Mary don't you weep..."

Three

Starship Dirty Copper, flying above the red forest...listen!

"Momma's not afraid and neither am I, 'cause my daddy flies that ship in the sky"

Two

Sissie B, hovering around the tower.
"Michael row the boat ashore, Halleluyah..."

Day One

Orangina B is buzzing around the flowers, and if you listen, you can hear her singing, "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine...."

It's Coming

Starting on Thursday, Dec 1st, I will be sending out my New Year's Calendar, which consists of an email/post a day until the end of the year.  (It's kind of an overgrown, non-denominational "Advent" calendar - which grew to include the whole month of December).  Many of you have received these before. 

This year I will also be posting the calendar here on my blog.
 
If you want the emails and are not on my list please let me know.  If there is anyone you think would enjoy getting the emails send me their e-dress, or send them here to the blog.

Happy December!

My donation to Catherine Nash's project Contemporary Paper and Encaustic

 I'm donating the Net to help support Catherine Nash's Contemporary Paper and Encaustic.

 Check out her incredible project:

http://papermakingresources.blogspot.com/2011/11/donor-rewards-art-for-your-pledge-usa.html

http://www.unitedstatesartists.org/project/contemporary_paper_and_encaustic_international_trends

Wax-Inc and Copley

If you get a chance to visit the South Shore Art Center in Cohasset before Christmas look for my Starship Flipper in the Wax-Inc show.  This Sunday Kim Bernard will be giving a Gallery talk at 1 pm.

Starship Flipper

and this little diptych, Red Planet, will be in the Copley Society's Holiday small works show, along with a couple more.

And still more encaustic monotype experiments..

 

This one features Hylla's Joanne loves this Red.

 

This one is mounted on a panel and altered.

This is very addictive!

More encaustic monotype experiments..

I've been having a wonderful time with my encaustic hot box.  Here are a couple of details from my output.  They are all part of a series with stars, and will probably end up in an artist's book in the near future.

Photos uploaded from Wyoming

the Teton range from the valley.

The photos from our trip have been uploaded - http://picasaweb.google.com/steigeisen99

There are 4 Wyoming 11 albums..

In the Wind River Range

Aviation Day

So here's my "book" - called Flight...

Hope you all fly high, at least in your dreams! 

Home Again...

Great vacation in Wyoming.  Lots of camping and hiking and wilderness.

Here's a little watercolor from the west side of the Wind River range.

(I do watercolors to keep myself humble.)

 

Off to the Tetons

Well, we're about to leave on vacation - going back to Wyoming and the Tetons, and this year the Wind River Range too.  Here are some pictures I made during last year's trip.

These are from a re-purposed book I took along.. 

Happy Fouth - redux...

I just got my new Hot Box from Paula Roland, and had to create an encaustic monotype for the occasion. Here's a bit of old glory to celebrate the day..

  

watch out for all the fireworks!

I couldn't stop, here are a few more takes on Old Glory....