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!

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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!

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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.

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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.