Groundhog Day 2020

It's that time of year again - Groundhog Day! The text on this card is from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, when the Red Queen is telling Alice how things work in Wonderland. In evolutionary biology, the Red Queen Hypothesis refers to the idea that organisms must constantly adapt and change in order to keep up with an ever changing environment. I cut the bottom of the card into a curve so that the card can rock back and forth to kinetically demonstrate that the running groundhog is literally going nowhere.

This is my 6th annual Groundhog Day card. If you'd like to see the previous years' designs, here are the links.

Groundhog Day 2014 
Groundhog Day 2015 (I skipped 2016)
Groundhog Day 2017
Groundhog Day 2018 
Groundhog Day 2019

Groundhog Day 2015

3" x 4" (image)
5" x 5" (paper) 
Woodcut printed in black oil-based ink on Stonehenge paper. 

This is the stamp for my second annual Groundhog Day card. (Click here to view last year's.) Instead of sending out season's greetings, I wait until the chaos of the holidays is over and send out season's adieu. That said, I don't think we'll be having an early spring this year, which is why this little guy is still fast asleep. 

The phrase is from Shakespeare's Macbeth: 

Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care,

The death of each day’s life, sore labor’s bath,

Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,

Chief nourisher in life’s feast.

Groundhog Day 2014

Almost time for Groundhog Day, and as I now live in Pennsylvania, the birthplace of this charming holiday, I have decided to begin an annual tradition of designing a Groundhog Day image to put on greeting cards.

My, he seems earnest in his existential plea. I suppose he deserves some sort of reply. Let me think...

Well, if you see your shadow, it's supposed to frighten you back into your burrow, and for some reason this means winter is prolonged. If February 2nd is dreary, you'll not see your shadow and spring will come sooner. (Which is kind of ironic seeing as that if you see your shadow it's a sunny day.) There's apparently some mystery and debate as to exactly how this particular bit of lore started and what it originally meant, which may not matter all that much since it is certainly not how most people would take it today. How they take it today is... er, well, I'm going to have to go with Douglas Adams on that one and say maybe 42?