Lucky 13

“fields of lupine” is 8x10, made with acrylic paint, washi paper, part of a map, colored pencils and glue on cradled wood. It is part of the 2024 Makino Studios calendar. A card version reads, “love you, mama bear.” © Annette Makino 2023

Today is the 13th anniversary of Makino Studios! A huge thank you to all the customers, store buyers and fans who have made this art business possible for a lucky thirteen years. To celebrate, I’m offering 13% off everything in the store though this Sunday with code 13YEARS.

And tomorrow marks the official return of spring! Here in Northern California, it’s been a very dark and soggy winter, which has inspired many a haiku about the relentless rain.

cold winter rain
the swollen creek also
rushing home

At times it seemed even the wildlife was complaining about the weather.

wild geese
kvetching across the sky
March bluster

Over the winter, algae colonized the outside of my Prius while mold made itself comfortable inside. Those were solvable problems, but in far worse news, a mysterious leak completely destroyed the electrical system in my husband’s eight-year-old RAV4. So far his car has spent six weeks at the repair shop; it seems the insurance company is going to call it a total loss. Perhaps these were signs to just sit out the winter at home by the fire . . .

Starting work on the collage above.

Pale and moldy ourselves, we’ve been grasping at every hint of spring—the first trillium blooming along the creek, the earliest cherry blossoms unfurling along our road. These past few days we’ve reveled in the precious sunshine, gardening and taking walks.

I used colored pencils to add subtle light and dark accents to the bears.

My husband, son and I did a favorite hike last week, the Lyons Ranch loop in Redwood National Park. A couple of springs back, we saw a black bear cub from that trail, prompting a long, nervous pause as we tried to spot the mother. (She was nowhere to be seen, and we continued without incident.) The collage and haiku featured here came out of that experience.

Here’s hoping you survived the long winter better than our cars did. Happy spring equinox!

fields of lupine
against all odds
spring again

Almost done, just considering different purple papers for the lupines.

Makino Studios News

Anniversary sale: Take 13% off everything in the Makino Studios shop through midnight on Sunday, March 24. Enter promo code 13YEARS at checkout.

New! Custom prints: By customer request, I've made some designs available in my shop as prints in several sizes that you can order on demand. If there’s a piece you’d like to order that you don’t see there, let me know.

Vacation plans: I will be taking a break and not filling orders April 5-26. Sorry for any inconvenience. Stock up now!

Mother’s Day and graduation: I’ve printed cards for Mother’s Day (May 12) and graduation (Cal Poly Humboldt commencement is May 11). Browse all 70-some card designs and notecard sets.

Social: I’ve mostly given up on Twitter/X (at least until it gets a less toxic owner), but I regularly post art, haiku, news and more on Instagram as @annettemakino and on Facebook as Makino Studios (links below). See you over there!

Haiku credits: “cold winter rain” - tinywords; “wild geese” - The Heron’s Nest; “fields of lupine” - 2024 in art and haiku by Annette Makino

Taylor Swift and the Trope of the Tortured Poet

“dawn’s early light” is 8x10, made from Japanese washi papers, metallic gold paper, book pages, paint and glue on cradled wood panel. It is the February art for my 2024 calendar. A card version reads, “you light up the room.” © Annette Makino 2023

I must admit I ignored Taylor Swift for years, thinking a pop star with such mainstream popularity, a pretty blonde beloved by teenage girls, would not be my cup of tea. But with the 2020 release of her folk-pop album Folklore, I took another listen—and became a fan. I belatedly discovered she is a gifted songwriter who writes original and interesting lyrics.

As you’ve probably heard, Swift has announced a new album called The Tortured Poets Department, to be released April 19. So does Swift consider herself a tortured poet? As evidence, there is a hand-written poem she recently posted to Instagram that includes lines like “my muses, acquired like bruises” and “my veins of pitch black ink.” Another subtle clue: it’s signed “The Chairman of the Tortured Poets Department.”

And yes, her lyrics often convey suffering. In “All Too Well” she sings, “you call me up again/Just to break me like a promise/So casually cruel in the name of being honest.” And on “Cardigan” she sings, “You drew stars around my scars/But now I’m bleeding.”

But the pain she describes is just one element of her persona; other songs talk about falling in love or tell colorful stories about fictional characters. I suspect Swift’s use of the “tortured poets” label is at least partly tongue-in-cheek, offered with her trademark combination of confession and self-deprecating humor. I guess we Swifties will just have to wait until April 19 for further clarity on this burning issue!

Meanwhile, the album title raises the question: do poets need to be tortured to write good poetry? The poster child for this stereotype is Sylvia Plath, a brilliant poet of pain and despair who took her own life at age 30. For awhile I found that my darker haiku had higher acceptance rates than my neutral or upbeat poems—proof that such poems are inherently stronger or more compelling? (See my anonymous 2013 letter on this question to the Haiku Maven advice column.) But of course, one can write about hard times from a place of acceptance rather than agony.

Despite the trope of the tortured poet—a corollary to the trope of the starving artist—there are plenty of life-affirming poets. Consider Mary Oliver’s lines, “When it’s over, I want to say: all my life/I was a bride married to amazement.” Maybe it comes from spending a lot of time in nature and learning to notice small details, but haiku poets in particular really seem to appreciate life’s gifts.

“scattered feathers” is 5x7, made of watercolor paper, an airmail envelope, washi paper, a vintage Janaese stamp, feathers, paint, thread, ink and glue on paper. © Annette Makino 2021

Tortured or not, I think the most effective poems come from being present and attuned to the world around you. You don’t necessarily have to suffer to write good poetry, but you do need access to depths of feeling and the gift of observation. This helps you write poetry that is accessible, involving some experience readers can relate to even if they have never gone through that exact event. An example:

dawn’s early light
the neighbor’s peacock
tunes up

Poetry—and I include Taylor Swift’s lyrics in that category—helps us make sense of this shifting world, the major triumphs and tortures along with the small moments that, strung together, make up our lives.

scattered feathers
the weight
of being human

Makino Studios News

Red Moon Anthology: I am thrilled to have the following poem in Upside Down, the 2023 anthology from Red Moon Press of the best English-language haiku of the year. Editors nominated more than 3000 poems for the latest edition, and I’m honored that mine was one of the 146 haiku that made the cut. My thanks to the anthology editors.

alone at the beach
someone else’s dog
brings me a stick

Mother’s Day and graduation: I’ve stocked up on these cards for Mother’s Day (May 12) and graduation (Cal Poly Humboldt commencement is May 11). Browse all 70-odd card designs.

Publication credits:
“dawn’s early light” - Mariposa; “scattered feathers” - Modern Haiku.

The reality of the artist life

“dream journal” is 8x10, made from book pages, newsprint, junk mail, vintage Japanese letters, washi papers, acrylic paint, glue, charcoal and white ink on cradled wood. It is also available as a card reading, “happy birthday to an extraordinary being.”

When you picture the life of a working artist, do you imagine days filled with sketching ideas or brushing canvasses in a paint-splattered studio? Maybe mixing buckets of paint and experimenting with colors and textures? That was certainly my impression before I became a full-time artist myself!

That picture may be true for some artists, but for me the reality is that actually creating art is just a small part of my work. You might say it's just one arm of the octopus. To give you some idea, here are a few things I’ve been doing these past few days.

  • preparing a Zoom presentation and workshop on creating haiga (art with haiku) for a haiku group this Saturday afternoon (and you’re invited! Details in the Makino Studios News section);

  • co-editing a conference anthology for the Seabeck Haiku Getaway I attended in October;

  • updating my CV and submitting materials for a proposed show of local Asian American artists;

  • shipping Makino Studios orders (especially 2024 calendars) and restocking stores (especially cards); and

  • working on year-end accounting and tax prep for my business.

Oh, and I wrote several haiku. (As per usual, they are mostly bad, though I think there are a couple with potential.) I also went on several long walks at the beach, woods and marsh, which ultimately inspires most of my art and haiku.

While I sometimes feel frustrated that I don’t have more time in my studio, the reality is that most of these other activities are enjoyable too. For instance, I’m learning a lot about the editorial process by co-editing a publication for the first time. But I definitely do not enjoy bookkeeping!

year-end accounting
I try to reconcile
the past

The truth is that while most of my other commitments are ongoing throughout the year, I tend to create art in concentrated bursts, especially during my summer retreats on the river. My collage papers are just gathering dust right now, but the time will come when I dive back in to art making, tearing paper and splattering paint with gusto!

I did dip into art-making when my two sisters visited recently. We had fun creating plant prints using leaves and grasses on a gel press, which I will use in future collages. (Photo: Yoshi Makino)

Makino Studios News

Haiga presentation/workshop: In this Zoom event for Komo Kulshan Haiku, a group based in the Pacific Northwest, I will present a selection of my haiga (art with haiku), talk about how to create haiga, and then lead a workshop on pairing haiku with images. You are invited to join this free meeting, which takes place this Saturday, January 20, 1-3 p.m. Pacific. Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89424637034

2024 mini-calendars: I still have some of these calendars of art and haiku for sale, which feature 12 colorful Asian-inspired collages with original haiku.

Valentine’s day cards: February 14 will be here before you know it! I have several cards suitable for Valentine’s Day, such as this collage design reading, “you are my heart’s delight.”

Free shipping: Use promo code FREESHIP35 for free shipping on any order of $35 or more.

From the archives: For more about the challenges of being an artist—and my 23 failed attempts to paint a simple frog—see my 2013 blog post, “The truth about being an artist.”

Thanks: I always appreciate your comments, especially the kind responses to the feature article, “Annette Makino’s life in collage” that ran in the North Coast Journal last month.

A few gel press prints made with plants, which I’ll use for collages.

News story on my art journey

I’m excited to share that this week’s North Coast Journal includes an in-depth article about my creative path! My thanks to Louisa Rogers for the lively and well-researched column—it’s a great holiday gift to be featured. Happy solstice and season’s greetings to all!

Makino’s “Garden rosebush,” a collage of book pages, a letter and envelope from the artist’s grandmother, handmade and Japanese washi papers, painted, torn and glued onto birch wood panel.

ART BEAT

Annette Makino’s Life in Collage

LOUISA ROGERS, NORTH COAST JOURNAL, EUREKA, CA, DECEMBER 21, 2023

Annette Makino has been an artist all her life but it wasn't until 2010 that she became interested in incorporating haiku into her artwork. For her birthday that year, her Arcata friend and fellow artist Amy Uyeki gave her a book of senryu, a poetic form structurally similar to haiku but with more humor and a focus on human nature. The poems were written by Uyeki’s Japanese grandmother and accompanied by Uyeki’s art.

“This lovely book set me on my current path,” says Makino, whose father is also Japanese. She started combining her haiku with simple brush paintings, which evolved to Asian-inspired watercolors and then collages. A year later, after leaving her 20-year career as senior vice president for communications at the Arcata-based nonprofit Internews, she launched Makino Studios, offering collages, watercolors, prints, cards and calendars.

Annette Makino. Photo by Maya Makino

Currently she works mostly with collage using hand-painted and torn Japanese washi papers, which are typically made from the fibers of the mulberry plant. She also uses other papers from different parts of her life—letters, her young nephew’s scribbles, book pages, musical scores and maps. To make sure the pieces don’t fade over time, she uses acrylic paints to color the white paper, then tears it into the shapes she wants and glues it onto paper or wood, a process that typically takes two to three days. According to Makino, a common misconception is that collage doesn't require much skill. “It’s very labor intensive and can involve as much skill as painting,” she says.

Makino’s most productive periods of artwork happen twice every summer, when she and her husband, Paul, a retired Cal Poly Humboldt geography professor, rent a cabin on the Klamath River in Orleans, a place they've visited for 27 years. In that placid location, free from distractions, she can get a lot of work done.

Makino usually writes the haiku first, before the artwork. “The words aren’t meant to illustrate the art,” she says. “You want a bit of distance, so the reader has a new way to think about the theme.” She often starts crafting the poem while hiking in Ma-le'l Dunes or in Trinidad, where she and Paul walk a couple of times a week.

Makino considers herself equal parts artist and writer. Her book Water and Stone: Ten Years of Art and Haiku was awarded Honorable Mention in the Haiku Society of America's Merit Book Awards and her poetry regularly appears in English-language haiku journals, including Modern Haiku, Frogpond and The Heron’s Nest. She has also won awards for her poetry from the Haiku Foundation and the Haiku Society of America.

Annette Makino’s “All that I am” incorporates book pages, a fern print, a vintage Japanese letter and washi paper, as well as asemic, or made-up, writing by her nephew.

Many of Makino’s haiku have to do with transitions. A few years ago, for example, when her two young adult children started the process of leaving home, she wrote about the empty nest, while the loss of her 16-year-old dog inspired many poems last summer. Her 95-year-old mother Erika, a former Humboldt resident and also a writer and artist, lives three hours away in Mendocino County. Makino visits her about once a month and is keenly aware of her mom’s gradual decline. That, and the earthquake last winter which caused a lot of damage to her home, have inspired her poetry and art. “Whatever life brings me,” she says. 

Makino was one of five local artists granted the 2022 Victor Thomas Jacoby award for “artistic vision and creativity,” provided annually by the Humboldt Area Foundation and Wild Rivers Community Foundation. Winners each received $10,000 to support their work. The award freed her from some of the commercial pressures of running a business and creating mostly marketable art that appeals to the public. Instead, she experimented with mixed media, using materials like charcoal, crayon, ink and pencil in her collages, and exploring oils and cold wax.

North Coast Journal, December 21, 2023

Recently, she’s been incorporating more personally meaningful elements into her collages. Because Paul loves maps, she created a collage for him that included a detailed map of Tibet. Another collage she created with whales incorporated a scrap from her daughter’s high school copy of Moby Dick. For “Garden rosebush,” she says, “I included a letter from my Swiss grandmother when I got married.”

Makino’s Japanese-Swiss ancestry has shaped her creativity. The haiku and Japanese paper may be more apparent to viewers but, “The Swiss, too, are surprisingly very playful in their art and writing,” she says, noting she likes to bring that spirit of play into her work.

Makino’s cards, prints and calendars are available at the Made in Humboldt Fair at Pierson Garden Shop through Dec. 24, and in shops around the county year-round. You can see more of her work at makinostudios.com.

Louisa Rogers (she/her) is a writer, painter and paddleboarder who lives in Eureka and Guanajuato, Mexico.

Makino Studios News

Made in Humboldt fair: With 300 local vendors, the “Made in Humboldt” event at Pierson Garden Shop in Eureka, CA runs through this Sunday, Dec. 24. There you will find my calendars, books, small prints and boxed notecards.

2024 mini-calendars: I am still shipping out orders through the holidays, especially my calendars of art and haiku! They feature 12 colorful Asian-inspired collages with my original haiku. $12 each.

Free shipping: Earn free shipping on orders for $35 or more; just enter promo code FREESHIP35 at checkout.

Waiting for whales

Sometime last winter, on a coastal trail in Trinidad, CA, my husband and I sat on a bench and watched for migrating whales. We didn’t spot any, but there was a spectacular view of the ocean far below. I joked, “We’ll just have to settle for the Pacific.” Later that experience prompted a haiku.

A few months later, while at the riverside cabin we rent every summer, I had the urge to make a collage of a whale. Though I prefer to use my own photos, in this case I had to turn to Google. I found several appealing images of gray whales to use for reference and quickly sketched the idea.

Next I flipped through the collection of papers that I have painted blue. Sometimes I have to paint the papers I need for a particular piece; other times I’m lucky enough to find what I want already prepared.

Eureka! There was a piece of rice paper that I had quickly painted with turquoise blue liquid acrylics, deliberately leaving white streaks. (These are known as “flying whites” in Japanese calligraphy.) Turned on the diagonal, that sheet of paper perfectly conveyed the quality of beams of sunlight filtering underwater.

I also found some washi papers from Asia that I had painted dark blue using a brayer and a gel press, with bits of rice straw and wood shavings showing through. It was time to start tearing my papers into the desired shapes.

But the single whale in my draft looked lonely. The piece called out for a second whale.

Months earlier, I had painted some pages of my daughter’s high school copy of Moby-Dick. Perfect for the second whale’s fins! I glued everything down on a cradled wood panel. Now the two whales looked like they could be playing with each other, a much more interesting dynamic.

At home later, I added some finishing touches: charcoal to create shadows, a white pencil for highlights, and specks of white ink to make the eyes come alive. I glued on an imprint of my red name seal. I had the piece professionally scanned, then added the haiku digitally using a personalized font made from letters I had brush-painted.

waiting for whales
we settle for
the ocean

The finished haiga is my favorite piece of the year. It is the January art for my 2024 calendar of art and haiku, and I also made a card version that reads, “so glad you’re part of my pod.” (That has emerged as the best-seller among the eight new card designs I released this fall.)

“waiting for whales” is 8x10, made of rice paper, Japanese washi paper, book pages, acrylic paint, glue, charcoal, white ink and white pencil on cradled birch panel. © Annette Makino 2023

Another recent poem about whale-watching, a one-line haiku:

nowhere I’d rather be migrating whales

We didn’t find any whales on that hike, but I found plenty of inspiration. And with gray whale migration season starting again, we’ll keep our eyes peeled!

P.S. If you’re curious about the haiga art form, the Haiku Society of America has just published an essay I wrote titled, “Pleasures and pitfalls in creating haiga.”

“waiting for whales” appeared in the Haiga Gallery of Contemporary Haibun Online, December 2023.

“nowhere I’d rather be” appeared in The Heron’s Nest, September 2023

Makino Studios News

2024 calendar sale: These calendars of art and haiku are 10% off through this Sunday, Dec. 10! They feature 12 colorful Asian-inspired collages with my original haiku. Normally $12 each, currently $10.80.

Free shipping: Earn free shipping on everything in the shop through Sunday, Dec. 10, 2023. Enter promo code HOLIDAY23 at checkout. No minimum order. Applies to first-class shipping in the US.

Holiday Craft Market: The only in-person fair I am doing this season takes place this 10-5 this Saturday, Dec. 9 and 10-5 on Sunday, Dec. 10, at the Arcata Community Center in Arcata, CA. $1 admission. Catering by Mother’s Cooking Experience. Hope to see you there!

Made in Humboldt fair: The “Made in Humboldt” event at Pierson Garden Shop in Eureka, CA runs through Sunday, Dec. 24; there you will find my calendars, books, small prints and boxed notecards. There are 250 participating vendors, all local.

Water and Stone: My award-winning book of art and haiku includes 50 watercolor paintings with my original poems. Cost is $25. You can find it online here, on Amazon and in select local Humboldt stores. 

Cards: Holiday, birthday, sympathy or everyday… right now there are 70 Makino Studios card designs to choose from, including eight new designs. I also have several notecard sets, including holiday designs.

Holiday order deadline: To make sure your package arrives by December 25, please order by Friday, December 15. Makino Studios ships via USPS Ground Advantage and first-class mail. The elves are standing by!

Thanks: I always appreciate your comments, including all the emailed responses to my last post, “It’s complicated: Celebrating a holiday with a dark past.”

It's complicated: Celebrating a holiday with a dark past

“to everything a season” is 8x10, made of washi papers, acrylic paint, and glue on cradled wood panel. This is one of the pages of the 2024 calendar of art and haiku, and is available a holiday card or notecard set reading, “Wishing you joyful holidays”. © Annette Makino 2023.

Thanksgiving 1968. My kindergarten classmates and I dress up in pilgrim hats and Indian headbands for a “feast” of snacks at the classroom’s long formica tables. My hat, made from a paper plate and crumpled tissue paper flowers, is awkwardly tied under my chin with yarn.

It was the first of many whitewashed lessons about this holiday, touting peace and harmony between white European settlers and Native Americans. As a child, I was dubious about the fashion but never thought to question the story. Yet despite the version most of us learned in school, Thanksgiving has complex and dark beginnings.

When visiting my son at Whitman College last month, I got to see Larissa Fasthorse’s “The Thanksgiving Play." This is a very entertaining, satiric look at the efforts of four well-meaning white characters to produce a politically correct Thanksgiving play for an elementary school. Given the lack of Indigenous actors or writers, the characters reach the comically logical conclusion that the most respectful way to honor the Native American side of the story is to leave them out of the play altogether.

That is clearly an absurd solution. But how can we best celebrate a day with such a checkered history?

My kindergarten portrait, without the Pilgrim hat.

I focus on the Indigenous tradition of giving thanks for nature’s abundance, and to the practice of modern-day people, Indigenous and not, to focus on the gift of family. I’m also educating myself on the history behind Thanksgiving—the National Museum of the American Indian offers great resources.

The Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address, which expresses gratitude for all life, begins: “Today we have gathered and we see that the cycles of life continue. We have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things. So now, we bring our minds together as one as we give greetings and thanks to each other as people. Now our minds are one.”

In that spirit, here’s wishing you a happy and abundant Thanksgiving.

Makino Studios News

Everything in the shop is 15% off with promo code THANKS23 through Sunday, Nov. 26!

Thanksgiving sale: Use promo code THANKS23 at checkout for 15% off everything in the Makino Studios shop except original art. No order minimum. Good for first-class shipping within the U.S. Only one promo code per order. Sale ends at midnight this Sunday, Nov. 26.

Made in Humboldt fair: The “Made in Humboldt” event at Pierson Garden Shop in Eureka, CA runs through Sunday, Dec. 24; there you will find my calendars, books, small prints and boxed notecards. There are 250 participating vendors, all local.

Holiday Craft Market: The only in-person fair I am doing this season takes place Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 9 and 10, at the Arcata Community Center in Arcata, CA. $1 admission. Catering by Mother’s Cooking Experience.

2024 mini-calendars: These calendars of art and haiku make great holiday gifts, as evidenced by the customers who buy 5, 10, even 20 at a time! They feature 12 colorful Asian-inspired collages with my original haiku. $12 each.

Water and Stone: My award-winning book of art and haiku includes 50 watercolor paintings with my original poems. Cost is $25. You can find it online here and in select local Humboldt stores. 

Cards: Holiday, birthday, sympathy or everyday… right now there are almost 70 Makino Studios card designs to choose from, including eight new designs. I also have several notecard sets, including holiday designs.

Art prints: Blake’s Books in McKinleyville carries a selection of my art prints, ready for gifting. They are among the local stores that carry my books, calendars, notecards and single cards.

Holiday order deadline: If you’d like your package to arrive by December 25, please order by Friday, December 15. Makino Studios ships via USPS Ground Advantage and First-class mail. The elves are standing by!

Hiking haiku for nature lovers

“morning hike” is 11x14, created from handwritten notes, book pages, and Japanese washi papers. These were painted, torn and glued on cradled wood panel. This is one of the pages of the 2024 Makino Studios calendar. The image is also available as a card reading, “the woods may be dark but I’ll walk beside you.”

I recently attended the annual Seabeck Haiku Getaway in beautiful Seabeck, Washington. Organized by Haiku Northwest, this is always a magical and fun gathering. As a featured reader there, I chose to share some poems I’ve written over the years inspired by the hikes my husband and I take several times a week. It seems fitting that during my reading at Scenic Beach State Park, a bald eagle’s cry punctuated my words.

As I explained at my reading, here on California’s redwood coast, we are blessed with amazing variety in the natural landscapes around us, including deserted beaches, old-growth redwood forests and tree-lined rivers. Here is a sampling of the haiku that I’ve found along the trail.

morning hike
my face undoing
the spider’s work

leaf light
tree by tree
the path unfolds

I highly recommend the Seabeck Haiku Getaway for haiku poets anywhere. For more details and photos of this year’s gathering, see @annettemakino on Instagram or Makino Studios on Facebook, links below.


our easy silence
every puddle
sky-deep

tree pose
the redwoods and I
wave our branches

untold stories
tufts of rabbit fur
line the trail

edge of the woods
some things I may not
want to know

chigger bites
my finger traces
the wilderness map

A trail on the grounds of the Seabeck Conference Center in Seabeck, WA in October 2023.

fallen shore pine
an egret’s long glide
over still water

solo hike
slowly catching up
to myself


mountain switchbacks
a turkey vulture
considers our odds

summer dusk
we cede the great outdoors
to a mosquito

egret wings
the evening sun
glides to earth


In these turbulent times, here’s wishing you the peace and healing of time spent in nature.

Publication and contest credits: Acorn; A Warm Welcome: 2013 Seabeck Haiku Getaway Anthology; The Sacred in Contemporary Haiku; Harold G. Henderson Memorial Awards Contest; Wales Haiku Journal; Modern Haiku; The Heron’s Nest; Dust Devils: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2016; Presence; Something Out of Nothing: 75 Haiga.

Makino Studios News

New card designs: I’ve created eight new cards for a range of occasions. Browse the whole collection.

New holiday notecard set: I also designed some new boxed notecards of persimmons, reading, “wishing you joyful holidays.” See all notecard sets.

2024 calendar: My mini-calendars of haiku and art make great gifts—and they are still just $12 each.

Haiga presentation: October was a busy month: I was also a featured reader for Haiku Poets of Northern California, where I showed a selection of my watercolor and collage haiga (art with haiku). The 15-minute Zoom presentation is on YouTube.

Made in Humboldt Fair at Pierson’s: This event at the Pierson Garden Shop in Eureka features locally made gifts and food products by Humboldt artisans and craftspeople. You can find my calendars, notecard sets, signed prints and books there. Runs through Dec. 24.

Arcata Holiday Craft Market: This fair benefiting youth development scholarships takes place the weekend of December 9-10 at the Arcata Community Center. Look for my Makino Studios booth on the lefthand side of the main room. Mother’s Cooking Experience will cater.

Free shipping: I offer free US shipping on orders of $35 or more. Enter code FREESHIP35 at checkout.