Groundhog Day 2025

Haiku for Groundhog Day 2025 

here we are 
(again) 
facing a decision
to step out or
retreat 

This is my 11th annual Groundhog Day card. Here are links to all the previous cards: 

Groundhog Day 2014 
Groundhog Day 2015 (I skipped 2016)
Groundhog Day 2017
Groundhog Day 2018 
Groundhog Day 2019
Groundhog Day 2020 
Groundhog Day 2021
Groundhog Day 2022 
Groundhog Day 2023 
Groundhog Day 2024 

Groundhog Day 2024

One of my favorite things about winter is making soup. I make soup about twice a week all winter long. It's wonderful because it can be made so many different ways, and as long as a little care and consideration is put into the including and balancing of certain flavors, it turns out wonderful and comforting. The best gift I ever received from the parent of one of my students was a loaf of bread and some vegetable soup, given to me at the end of a long day. Little things matter. 

This is my 10th annual Groundhog Day card. Here are links to all the previous cards: 

Groundhog Day 2014 
Groundhog Day 2015 (I skipped 2016)
Groundhog Day 2017
Groundhog Day 2018 
Groundhog Day 2019
Groundhog Day 2020 
Groundhog Day 2021
Groundhog Day 2022 
Groundhog Day 2023 

Groundhog Day 2023

 

Yes, the world is on fire and we're all perpetually burned out. So catch that second (or third, fourth, tenth...) wind, and get going! Do good art (or other good stuff)! Help others! Find joy! WHATEVER IT TAKES. 

This is my 9th annual Groundhog Day card. Here are links to all the previous cards: 

Groundhog Day 2014 
Groundhog Day 2015 (I skipped 2016)
Groundhog Day 2017
Groundhog Day 2018 
Groundhog Day 2019
Groundhog Day 2020 
Groundhog Day 2021
Groundhog Day 2022 

Groundhog Day 2022

 

woodcut printed in oil-based ink on Kraft cardstock

This year the good ol' groundhog can't even be bothered to come out. Shadow or not, he's staying in his hole. 

While hopefully viewers find some humor here, it is a dark humor. I wish this year's Groundhog Day card design could have been more positive. We're now into the third year of a global pandemic that is gradually shifting to endemic. Still scary, but we're also all just so damned fatigued. It's hard to get excited about anything anymore because so many plans have been cancelled. Most of us who have survived this thing are now a couple years older, poorer, and more melancholy than we were before it began. Work is far more constant than joy.

Who could blame the fuzzy little guy for his reluctance to emerge? 

This is my 8th 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 2020 
Groundhog Day 2021 

Groundhog Day 2021

It's Groundhog Day, and that means my annual Groundhog Day card. This one is a woodcut pop-up card, the background printed on kraft brown cardstock and the groundhog printed on cream colored Stonehenge paper. 

This year's protagonist stands in an open field on a cloudy day, looking off into the distance. Rather than making a clear decision in this moment, they ponder the unknown. Indeed at this start of 2021, it feels very much as if the world is in a transitional phase, and it is less clear than usual what comes next. 

This is my 7th 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 2020 

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 2019"

It's Groundhog Day again, and that means time for my annual Groundhog Day card. As is evident from the previous designs, I either get a little odd or a bit sentimental. This is the first year I added some color (hand color with Prismacolor markers) to the card, and I did so for what I think are obvious reasons.

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

I love making cards for this holiday because January is a quiet, contemplative month after the hustle and bustle of the holidays is over, and it's still too cold and dark to spend much time outside. I also love the silliness of the holiday. It's one of those low-pressure events that opens itself up for us to make what we want of it. I'm not sure what to expect from Groundhog Day. But I fear that if I and others make nothing of it, it will fade away from our collective cares.

Therefore, a heartfelt Happy Groundhog Day to all! *honk honk* 

Groundhog Day 2018

6" x 4"
Oil-based ink on 140 lb Cold Press Strathmore Watercolor paper

This is my 4th annual Groundhog Day card. (Sort of - I started in 2014, but skipped 2016.) You can view the previous years' cards here. This is also the first with no text. None necessary in this case, I suppose.

Groundhog Day 2017

This is my 2017 Groundhog Day card. It's a linocut and I did a first edition of 33. I skipped making one last year (I had just moved and hadn't set up my studio yet.) I did make Groundhog Day cards in 2015 and 2014, and plan to continue this as an annual tradition.

This is my first woodcut to include a pop-up element. So the messages are written on the cover of the card and the decorative image is on the inside. I leave it up to the viewers to decide what he's reacting to and its meaning.

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?