Solving the puzzle

“baby sparrow” is 11x14, made from paper, acrylic paint, pencil, charcoal and glue on birch panel. It is one of two pieces now showing at the Medium Gallery in Ukiah, CA. The image is also available as a card reading, “so happy you were born.” © Annette Makino 2022

First of all, Happy Fourth of July! To celebrate, I’m offering 20% off everything in my Makino Studios shop (except original art) on orders of $20 or more. Just use code 4JULY at checkout before midnight this Sunday.

In the months since I last wrote, I’ve spent a lot of time caregiving for my 96-year-old mother. I’ve also been been traveling—I spent most of April exploring and hiking through the gorgeous, otherworldly Southwestern US (see pics on my Insta and Facebook, links below).

red rock canyon
just a matter
of time

But my main activity of the past few months has been making art. While some artists can create under any conditions, I need everything to be just so to feel ready to work. A cluttered art studio and too many urgent items on my to-do list are creative turnoffs: I need a clean space and a clear mind. Since my artistic urge is such a fragile flower, I try to nurture it whenever it blooms.

After a creative dry spell of several months, conditions have been right for a very productive artistic streak. At the moment I have eleven new collages waiting to be scanned and combined with haiku. With several more ideas percolating, there should be plenty of pieces to choose from for my 2025 calendar of art and haiku. Many of these pieces will also become cards once I figure out the words. I’m excited to share the new work with you this fall!

Sometimes while struggling with a piece, I wonder why I bother making collages. They can take as much time or more as regular paintings. So why bother fiddling with little bits of colored paper to make an image that I could just as easily paint, with more realistic results?

Well, after a decade of making fairly representational paintings in Japanese watercolors and sumi ink, I felt I had come to the end of that approach. My 2021 book, Water and Stone, was the culmination of that ten-year period. Though several notches short of mastery, I had reached a level of ability where there was not enough of a challenge left to interest me. Even though it can be uncomfortable or scary to try something new, I enjoy being stretched.

baby sparrow
the thin line between
falling and flying

I also love solving puzzles. For a couple of years I was hooked on playing the Scrabble-like game Words With Friends on my phone, absurdly spending up to an hour to find the highest-scoring word for each turn. Some years earlier, while staying in a Swiss village with my family, I got so addicted to completing a jigsaw puzzle that I missed out on a magical, snowy New Year’s Eve walk—as my husband keeps reminding me.

a thousand-piece puzzle deeper into winter

Alas, I was denied the satisfaction of finishing that puzzle: the last piece was missing.

thrift store puzzle
the holes
you can never fill

I recently realized that I enjoy making collages because it’s a continuous process of solving puzzles. The challenge: using only torn bits of paper, how can I create the picture I have in my mind? Which collage papers from my stash best represent the colors, textures and sizes I need to create that image? Sure, I can paint papers specifically for a particular need, but that is time-consuming and messy—I much prefer to hunt for the right piece from the collection of papers I’ve already painted.

Process shot of the golden retriever piece.

A couple of weeks ago I was working on a scene of a golden retriever at the beach. I leafed through my collection of painted blue papers for a way to represent the waves. Aha! A sheet printed with slate blue paint in a lively texture obtained by wrinkling tin foil and then rolling paint over it. And a bit of lacy white rice paper that could serve as the foamy edge of the wave. Oh, and for the dog’s chest, a deep gold piece of a map with Arabic place names that could imply long, wavy fur. Puzzle pieces falling into place. And the collage takes form.

rustling paper
          becomes wings
                    becomes wind

I’m looking forward to lots more puzzling ahead as I figure out how to make my collages come alive. Here’s wishing you a fun July 4th weekend and a fulfilling summer!

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Makino Studios News

Fourth of July sale: Cards, notecard sets, prints, books and more—take 20% off site-wide through this Sunday at midnight on orders of $20 and up! Enter code 4JULY at checkout. Offer excludes original art.

Paper, Paste, and Pulp: I have two collages in this show at Medium Gallery in Ukiah, CA. The opening is during First Friday tomorrow, July 5, from 5 to 8 p.m. and the show runs until July 27. The gallery is in the Pear Tree Shopping Center near Bank of America. I can’t attend the show but if you happen to make it, please send pics!

Anywhere But Here: I’ll also be represented in the Medium Gallery’s August show, with reflections on time and place, longing, wanderlust and exploration. The opening is during First Friday on August 2 from 5 to 8 p.m. and the show runs until August 31.

Made in America II: A Humboldt Celebration of Asian Artists: The Humboldt Arts Council has accepted a proposal for a show by thirteen Humboldt County artists of Asian descent, to be held at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in May 2025. I’m honored to be part of the group and plan to organize an accompanying poetry reading and haiga slide show.

Away on retreat: I will be on creative retreat at the Klamath River for the week of July 13-20, making collages and writing haiku. Makino Studios orders will be shipped out on my return.

Obon Festival: The annual Humboldt Obon festival takes place in Arcata, CA on Sunday, August 11 from 4-8 pm. This traditional Japanese festival, which remembers and honors our ancestors, will be held on 9th Street in front of the Arcata Playhouse. Organized by Humboldt Asian Pacific Islanders (HAPI), this is a fun, family-friendly community event. I don’t plan to have a booth there this year but it’s always a good time!

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Publication credits: “baby sparrow” - The Heron’s Nest; A New Resonance 13: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku; 2023 calendar of art and haiku by Annette Makino

“red rock canyon” and “a thousand-piece puzzle” - The Heron’s Nest

“thrift store puzzle” - Modern Haiku

“rustling paper” - Kingfisher

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.”

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“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

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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.”

A peek at my new lettering process

“deep river” is 11x14. This collage features three coho salmon swimming upstream, back to the place they were born. This piece is the January art for my 2022 calendar of art and haiku. As with all my collages, the papers start out white, and I then paint them with lightfast acrylic paint.

One fun detail is that the phrase "deep, deep river" appears on a scrap of a musical score. You can also see some prints I made from ferns, plus mango paper from Thailand, washi paper from Japan, newsprint, and even a toilet paper wrapper! I added the haiku using my Yuki font.

A new graduation card version reads, “congratulations—onward and upward!”

© Annette Makino 2021

There was a lot of interest in my last post, “How a collage is born.” So today I want to go behind the scenes again and share a bit about the process for my lettering. 

For my paintings and collages, I typically make one version of a piece that includes a haiku and another with the words for a greeting card. I normally leave the words off the original. 

I used to brush-paint each haiku or phrase using sumi ink, an ink stone and a bamboo brush. If you’ve ever tried painting or lettering using a brush and ink, you know it’s a delicate art with no room for error. So it would usually take me several tries to get right.

Then I would scan the words, edit out the white background, and digitally add the text to my art. This was a slow and painstaking process—with uneven results. 

Traditionally you make sumi ink by grinding an ink stick in an ink stone. Photo by Brandi Easter.

Here I am painting the letters for my custom font using sumi ink and a fine bamboo brush. I chose the best version of each letter for the font.

That changed last spring, when Arcata-based graphic designer and tech wiz Gabe Schneider at Sight Study created a custom font for me using my brush-painted letters. He used an extension for Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop called FontSelf, which turns lettering into OpenType fonts. He fine-tuned the spaces between letters (kerning and tracking), and even figured out a clever way to make a bold version.

A detail of my custom Yuki font based on the letters I painted above.

There are still situations when I will hand-paint my words. Sometimes I want a special look, as with the big section headings for my book, Water and Stone. Or sometimes a customer buys an original painting and wants the haiku on it. But I’m always nervous that I will ruin the painting with a typo or smear—it’s been known to happen!

With my new brush font, I can quickly and easily type the words for my haiku and greeting cards. I’ve used it for slide show presentations of my art and poetry, and it also works beautifully for the 365 dates on my calendar. 

Is it “cheating”? Using my custom font may seem less Zen than painting each letter by hand in the traditional way, but it also creates less aggravation. And isn’t that actually more Zen? Plus, I get elegant, consistent results in a fraction of the time—giving me more time to write haiku and make art.

A quick Google search for “Asian brush font” returns 34 million results—but none of them are mine. I named my font Yuki, which means snow in Japanese. It also happens to be my middle name. I say let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

rice paper moon
pine trees brush
the inky sky

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Makino Studios News

My 2022 calendar uses my Yuki font for the dates—something I would never do by hand.

New card designs: I’ve created several brand-new card designs, including three birthday cards and one for graduation, and I’ve updated others with new words. Browse the whole card collection, including Valentine’s Day cards.

Sale on 2022 mini-calendars: My 2022 mini-calendars, featuring 12 colorful Asian-inspired collages with my original haiku, are now on sale for $9.99 (from $12.00). I like to think of these as a small rotating gallery of art.

My first book review: A new review of Water and Stone: Ten Years of Art and Haiku in Haiku Canada Review says, “The images in Annette Makino’s collection are lovely, the prose is limpid, and the haiku seem effortlessly to verbalize how we are part of the world.” You can find my book here, on Amazon and in select Humboldt stores. It is 8x10, perfect bound, full color, and 124 pages. $24.99.