“Water and Stone” makes a splash

“sun-baked orchard” is 11x14, painted with sumi ink and Japanese watercolors on paper. Like many of the works featured in Water and Stone, it is available for sale. © Annette Makino 2018

Well, what a nice welcome for my new book, Water and Stone: Ten Years of Art and Haiku! All the orders, raves and reviews—it feels like a hat full of cherries. Thank you!

The Makino Studios site now offers Water and Stone. Please note that it can only ship to US mailing addresses. You can also order it on Amazon, which ships worldwide and probably soon throughout the solar system.

This is a full-color, 8x10 book, and runs 124 pages. It features 50 of my watercolor haiga (art + haiku) and 15 haibun (prose + haiku). The cost is $24.99 plus tax and shipping.

I’m happy to share that these stores in Humboldt County, California now carry my book:

Eureka
Eureka Books
Eureka Natural Foods
Northcoast Co-op

Water and Stone: Ten Years of Art and Haiku at Northtown Books in Arcata, California.

Arcata
Northcoast Co-op
Northtown Books
Plaza
Wildberries Marketplace

McKinleyville
Blake’s Books
Eureka Natural Foods
Miller Farms

Trinidad
Trinidad Trading Company

Here are a couple of Amazon reviews. And if you order from there and enjoy the book, I’ll be grateful if you post a review.

5.0 out of 5 stars •  Beautiful and relevant

Annette Makino’s work is wonderful — her haiku reveal ideas that are instantly relatable and yet profound. Her joyful, expressive art pairs perfectly. This collection of ten years’ work makes for a lovely gift or a book to enjoy yourself.

My mother, Erika Makino, turned 93 last month. What a pleasure to be able to give her a copy of the book I dedicated to her!

5.0 out of 5 stars • Wisdom, insight, humor, beauty.

Annette’s book is a joy. Each haiku is unexpected, like a good joke that takes a sudden turn. But instead of guffawing you will wryly smile and gain a nugget of insight into the ways of the world. Annette weaves her personal stories throughout so that each haiku succinctly, humorously, and with wisdom expresses the essence of the tale. Her lovely illustrations tie it all together. A delightful book.

Thanks for reading. Here’s hoping you are enjoying some sweet summer days despite the madness around us.

warmly, Annette Makino

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Makino Studios News

Studio Space: I am excited to share that I will be one of the featured artists on the second season of Studio Space! This is a ten-part series on local Humboldt artists produced by Eureka PBS station KEET-TV. A crew of six was here for four hours recently, interviewing me and filming me at work in my studio. It was quite a to-do! The new season will air in late spring of 2022. It will be available to stream online for free for three weeks, and then only to PBS/KEET members.

North Country Fair? This annual fair on the Arcata Plaza is scheduled to take place Sept. 18-19 this year, if COVID-19 safety permits. I am waiting to hear if it is still a go, given the rise in Humboldt County cases, and will let you know.

New calendars and cards: My 2022 calendar of art and haiku is going to press next week! This will feature 12 of my Asian-inspired collage haiga. I am also designing some new cards. These should all be ready in mid-September. Stay tuned!

The business of art: My column on “the business end of the paintbrush” for the weekly Business Sense series in the Eureka Times-Standard is now available online.

Best of Humboldt: Thanks to everyone who voted for me for Best Local Artist in the 2021 Best of Humboldt contest! Congratulations to the first place winner, mural artist Duane Flatmo, and to my fellow finalist, mural artist Blake Regan. 

Free shipping on books, cards and prints: Use code FREESHIP35 to get free first-class shipping on cards, prints, or other items on US orders of $35 or more on the Makino Studios site.

Ta-daaah! My new book is out!

Water and Stone: Ten Years of Art and Haiku, by Annette Makino, is published by Makino Studios and available to order on Amazon.

Since I was a child I have dreamt of publishing books. In third grade I even wrote and illustrated a rhyming alphabet book about books and being an author: “A is for ARTHUR (sic), It’s a him or a her. B is for bookstore, just go in the door . . . ”  It wasn’t exactly deathless prose, but the enthusiasm was genuine.

Fast forward fifty years, and I am thrilled to share that my new book, Water and Stone: Ten Years of Art and Haiku, is now available to order via Amazon! This softbound book of my watercolor art is 8x10, full color, 124 pages, and priced at $24.99. I’m also planning to get it into some local stores next month—stay tuned!

I’m honored that four luminaries of the world of haiku and haiga have lauded my book. Here’s the full Amazon description with their comments:

This beautiful book by award-winning haiku poet and artist Annette Makino provides a welcome dose of Zen wisdom and humor for our fractured world. Through vibrant paintings and evocative poems, Makino finds beauty and meaning in the everyday world, be it the rhythm of ocean waves, the bittersweet joys of parenting, or a traumatized rescue dog.

Spanning a decade of painting and writing, Water and Stone features fifty haiga—artworks combined with haiku—painted with Japanese watercolors and sumi ink. Sprinkled throughout the collection are fifteen haibun—autobiographical prose pieces that include haiku. While deeply personal, these touch on universal themes such as the quest for meaningful work, finding love, raising a family, growing older, and considering our place in the world.

By turns joyful and poignant, this full-color collection of Makino’s paintings and haiku is a treat for lovers of Japanese poetry and art. Reading Water and Stone lifts the spirit while helping to deepen awareness and appreciation of the present moment.

Praise for Water and Stone

“Since haiku has become the world’s most popular and practiced form of poetry, it should not be surprising that it has led to fascinating fusions with other arts. Adding to the spirit of the poem without trying to explain it in words is difficult, but when well done it offers a special combination of charm and depth. With the publication of Water and Stone, Annette Makino takes her place among the leaders of haiku painting (haiga).”

—Stephen Addiss, author of The Art of Haiku

“Water and Stone is a joyous kaleidoscope of color with deeply felt art and words. Stories captured in succinct moments and longer prose that resonate in the very best tradition of simplicity and brevity. Makino has produced a wonderful collection.”

—Ron C. Moss, Haiga Editor of Contemporary Haibun Online

“Annette Makino offers a rare combination of excellence in both art and haiku. Water and Stone celebrates selections of the best of her work over the past ten years, documenting an impressive flowering of her aesthetic commitment and deep, playful exploration of these arts.”

—Michael Dylan Welch, founder of National Haiku Writing Month

“Water and Stone is a wonderful book of haiku, haibun, and haiga. Makino’s personal artistic voice centers on haiga—in this collection watercolors in a unique style inspired by Japanese woodblock prints. Water and Stone is a reminder that the best haiku are about really seeing the small, obvious, or not-so-obvious things in daily life.”

—Linda Papanicolaou, Editor of HaigaOnline

P.S. If you enjoy your copy of Water and Stone, other prospective buyers and I would very grateful if you would post a review online!

P.P.S. Amazon says it can take 3-5 days for the book to show up in the international marketplace. Also the “Look Inside the Book” feature will be available in seven days.

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A peek inside Water and Stone. The book features 50 watercolor haiga (art with haiku) and 15 haibun (prose pieces that include haiku).

Makino Studios News

Best Local Artist: There’s less than a week left to vote for Best Local Artist in the 2021 Best of Humboldt contest! Anyone can vote, every day in June, and I’d love your support.

Away next week: I’ll be off on a weeklong creative retreat/vacation next week, so please get your card orders in by tomorrow (Friday) evening. I’ll ship any orders after that the week of July 5. You can shop all my cards here.

Free shipping on cards and prints: Use code FREESHIP35 to get free first-class shipping on cards, prints, or other items on US orders of $35 or more on the Makino Studios site.

“Word and Image: Exploring Modern Haiga”: This session on haiga (art combined with haiku) is now on YouTube. I presented it together with Linda Papanicolaou, Editor of HaigaOnline, at the Haiku Society of America’s annual conference. First I gave a ten-minute slide show of my watercolor art from the book (starts at 3:20), and then Linda explained approaches to linking haiku with art. Finally, participants wrote haiku to accompany the images we provided. We had more than 200 attendees via Zoom and it was a lively session!

The business of art: I wrote a column about “the business end of the paintbrush” for the Business Sense series in the Eureka Times-Standard. It’s supposed to run this Sunday, June 27. I’ll be out of town, so I hope someone saves me a copy!

North Country Fair: This annual fair on the Arcata Plaza is scheduled to take place Sept. 18-19 this year, if COVID-19 safety permits. Makino Studios will be there, and I’ll have my new book for sale!