“you give my heart wings” is 5×7, painted with sumi ink and Japanese watercolors on textured paper.
Yokwe! I am writing from the Marshall Islands, a tiny atoll nation in Micronesia, roughly between Hawaii and the Philippines. If you’ve never heard of it, don’t worry: it’s the fifth least visited country in the world, barely ahead of Somalia. But you have to love a country where the main greeting, “yokwe,” means “hello,” “goodbye,” “love,” and “you are a rainbow.”
I’m here for a couple of weeks to help my sister Yuri adopt a baby boy. It’s an incredible, heart-expanding experience, and right now there is too much to process to be able to write about it. (Not to mention all those time-consuming bottle feedings and diaper changes.)
So for now, having just flown across most of the Pacific, I am sharing this haiku sequence about air travel, along with a couple of paintings about flying. Enjoy!
In Flight
luggage store
I pick up a little more
baggage
airport restroom
the toilet seat
still slightly warm
exit row
trying to remember
how planes stay up
30,000 feet
my thoughts more and more
pedestrian
flying United feeling disjointed
crowded flight
on screen after screen
solitaire
Modern Haiku 45:1 (Winter-Spring 2014)
warmly, Annette Makino
“body lands safely” is 9×12, painted with sumi ink and watercolors on rice paper. It was published in Contemporary Haibun 13 (April 2013).
Makino Studios News
Hungry Ghosts: Thanks to everyone who came to the opening of this group show! What a fun (and crowded) evening! The exhibit, featuring artists with Asian and Pacific Islander backgrounds, runs through April at the Brenda Tuxford Gallery, upstairs at 325 2nd Street in Eureka, California.
Open Studios: Join silk painter Tina Gleave and me for the first weekend of North Coast Open Studios, May 31 and June 1, at the Samoa Women’s Club in Samoa, California. Also, there is a group show of Open Studios artists with a reception at the Brenda Tuxford Gallery on Saturday, May 3, 6-9 p.m. during Arts Alive.
Portland and Mendocino Stores: Two discerning new businesses are now carrying my cards: Oblation Papers & Press in Portland, Oregon, and The Stanford Inn by the Sea in Mendocino, California.
Traveling: As I am traveling for most of the rest of this month, my Makino Studios Etsy shop will be closed April 5-29. I’m sorry for any inconvenience.