Drop, cover and hold on

My view from under the coffee table

I was standing in the closet on Thursday morning when my phone started screeching. A couple seconds of confusion, then strong shaking. I quickly crawled under an oak coffee table to ride out a very scary earthquake. Everything rattled and swayed, and in the hot tub, my husband Paul got sloshed around. I was still under the coffee table when my phone squawked again, this time with a tsunami warning.

But thankfully, though it was a 7.0 shaker just 63 miles away, there was very little damage and no tsunami. The only casualty we sustained was a taper candle that fell over and broke. This was a far cry from the 6.4 earthquake here two years ago which seriously damaged dozens of houses, knocked out power to 70,000 people and broke our water pipes, plaster and dishes.

earthquake cleanup
all the cobwebs
left intact

Between the shaking ground, the destructive plans of our president-elect, and governments from France to Syria unexpectedly collapsing, much is in upheaval these days. Sometimes it seems the earthquake mantra, “drop, cover and hold on” should apply to the rest of life too.

a long day
of watching the world burn
his steady breathing

To add to the general madness, holiday season is upon us! If you still need to do some gift shopping amidst all this (gestures broadly at everything), here are a few ideas from the Makino Studios shop. There are mini-calendars (here’s to the two customers who just bought a combined total of 32 of these!), 70 card designs, a dozen notecard sets, matted small prints, larger custom prints, original art, books of art and haiku and stickers for stocking stuffers. May these gifts bring a little peace and beauty into the lives of your friends and family

Meanwhile, good luck staying balanced on this swiftly spinning orb—and here’s hoping your holidays are simply grand!

warmly, Annette Makino

NEW! redwood tree non-traditional holiday card - collage of giant redwood (457)

$5.00

NEW! 2025 mini-calendar of art and haiku - Japanese-inspired collage

$12.00

holiday notecard set - snowy woods with rabbit

$20.00

Book of art and haiku: Water and Stone

$25.00

A New Resonance 13: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku

$20.00

Original art: Many of the paintings and collages in my online gallery are for sale. Collages start at $280 and are ready to hang.

fog-shrouded coast - print

from $25.00

redwood blessing - small signed and matted print

$18.00

contented cat sticker

$4.00

Makino Studios News

Free shipping through this Sunday: I’ll cover your shipping within the US, no minimum order, through this Sunday, December 15. Enter code PEACE2024 at checkout.

Holiday shipping deadlines: For arrival on or before December 25, please place your order no later than Tuesday, December 17. The mail has been slow these days, so even sooner is safer.

Arcata Holiday Craft Market: I’m looking forward to connecting with people face-to-face this coming weekend, Dec. 14-15 at the Arcata Community Center in Arcata, CA. Look for the Makino Studios booth on the lefthand side of the main hall.

Made in Humboldt Fair: This event at Pierson Garden Shop in Eureka, CA is running through Dec. 24. There you can find my books, signed and matted prints, 2025 calendars and notecard sets.

Publication credits: “earthquake cleanup” - Frogpond; “a long day” - Presence

Remembering the Great East Japan Earthquake

“when someone you love” is 11×14, painted with sumi ink and Japanese watercolors on paper, and digitally edited. It is available as a sympathy card. © Annette Makino 2016

I’m writing on the fifth anniversary of the devastating earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan. It’s so hard to lose someone you love; multiply that grief by the nearly 16,000 people killed in the 2011 disaster, and the amount of suffering unleashed is overwhelming.

In addition, more than 200,000 people are still displaced from their homes, and the Fukushima nuclear plant continues to dump radioactive water into the sea.

And yet, we are such a resilient species. Japan is busy rebuilding, restoring and recovering.

My husband Paul happens to be in Hiroshima today, chaperoning a group of high school students. He reports that the city has emerged from the horror of the atomic bombing to become a lovely and vibrant place. The people of Hiroshima have transcended the nightmare of the past.

I’m sharing two paintings here. The piece above is a recent painting of an egret flying over a tilted marsh landscape. The words are adapted from a poem I wrote for my father after he died four years ago; he would have been 86 tomorrow. The piece is a close-up and personal portrait of loss. (See On Love and Loss and a Man Named Quantum.)

“May a thousand cranes” is 9×12, painted with ink on rice paper. © Annette Makino 2011

I painted the piece of flying cranes, left, in March 2011, a couple days after the Great East Japan Earthquake. Along with my first-ever blog post, A Prayer for Japan, it interweaves my personal connection to Japan with a prayer for healing and recovery.

warmly, Annette Makino

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Makino Studios News

New card designs: I have been busy painting, and just got eight new card designs back from the printer! You can find them in my Etsy shop or view them in my online gallery. They are also making their way into stores.

Kamome, The Boat of Hope: Two years after the tsunami, a small wooden boat from a high school in Japan washed up in Crescent City, California, about 75 miles north of Arcata. The Extraordinary Voyage of Kamome: A Tsunami Boat Comes Home tells the story of how the boat has linked two communities across the Pacific. Thisbeautifulchildren’s book was written by Lori Dengler and Amya Miller and illustrated by my friend Amy Uyeki.

Japan in June: My family is heading to Japan for three weeks in June! This will be our first trip there together. We are still planning our itinerary, but I am very much looking forward to finding new ideas and inspiration for art and haiku.