In the room where it happens

Today I’m sharing my process for “Winding River,” one of the collages in the Ten Thousand Gates group show at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka, CA. This landscape is inspired by the Klamath River in Orleans, CA where I go every summer to relax and create.

After painting and embellishing the papers with acrylic paints, I tear and place them on the canvas.

Here’s a closeup of the madrone trees as I play with placement.

The papers I’ve painted are organized with each color in a separate bin. On my laptop is one of the photos I took for reference.

At work in the room where it happens! This collage incorporates vintage Japanese letters, old brush paintings, a letter from Germany, book pages, a receipt from Japan, choir music, an insurance letter, plant prints, charcoal and ink scribbles and washi papers.

“Winding River” is 36” x 24”, made with found papers, Japanese washi papers, acrylic paint, colored pencil, charcoal, ink and matte medium on canvas. © Annette Makino 2025

I also want to say, wow, what an amazing few days it’s been! A case of everything everywhere all at once. My keynote at the ukiaHaiku Festival was very well-received and it was sweet to headline this event celebrating haiku in my old hometown of Ukiah, CA. The art opening for the Ten Thousand Gates group show at the Morris Graves Museum in Eureka, CA beautifully showcased the dynamic and diverse work of twelve artists of Asian descent. And the Ink to Paper reading that I organized—the first in Humboldt County to feature all Asian American poets—found a warm audience. Thank you to everyone who came out to these events!

As if all that weren’t enough, in the same ten-day period one of my haibun (prose with haiku) was featured by the poetry journal Rattle. I also spoke on an hour-long Thursday Night Talk panel on KZZH Access Humboldt about the weekend of local events celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage. And haiku luminary Brad Bennett focussed an entire session of his haiku class on my poems and haiga (art with haiku).

All this is a lot for an introvert! But it was really fun and rewarding, a validation of the art and poetry path I stepped onto fifteen years ago. And . . . I’m taking a much-needed vacation May 20-June 8.

stubbled wheat field
learning to let myself
just rest

Though Makino Studios orders will still be shipped, they may take longer to go out. So I’m offering 15% off everything in the shop through midnight this Sunday, Mother’s Day, with code MOMS15.

Happy Mother’s Day to the moms of all kinds out there, and enjoy these late spring days!

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Makino Studios News

Ten Thousand Gates - A Humboldt Celebration of Asian Artists: This art show at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka, CA features twelve artists of Asian descent: Karla Kaizoji Austin, Cate Be, Jeremy Hara, Ted Hsu, the late Suk Choo Kim, Ali Lee, Thao Le Khac, Amy Leon, Annette Makino, Yoshiko Skelton, Amy Uyeki and Libby Yee. The art ranges from traditional landscapes to contemporary street art. The show runs through June 8.

North Coast Open Studios: I will share my art and process during the second weekend of this fun event that takes place all around Humboldt County. On this 25th anniversary of North Coast Open Studios, I’m joining half a dozen international artists plus local artists at Creekside Arts in Freshwater, CA on Saturday and Sunday, June 14-15 from 10 to 5.

Mother’s Day Sale: Use code MOMS15 at checkout to get 15% off all cards, notecard sets, books, prints and calendars in the shop. Offer expires this Sunday, May 11 at midnight. Excludes original art.

Vacay plans: I will be on vacation May 20 to June 8, and Makino Studios orders will go out slowly while I’m gone. Sorry for the wait!

Cards for graduation, wedding and more: You can browse the card collection for these occasions and others.

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“stubbled wheat field” was published in Mariposa, #50, Spring/Summer 2024

A Celebration of Asian American Culture

“Forest Hush” is 24” x 18,” made of found papers, Japanese washi papers, acrylic paint, crayon and matte medium on canvas. It is part of a group art show at the Morris Graves Museum of Art through June 8. © Annette Makino 2025

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month! Especially for folks in Humboldt County California, I wanted to let you know about four special events celebrating the local Asian and Pacific islander community this weekend.

I’m honored to be part of two events at the Morris Graves Museum of Art: a group art show (artist reception 6-9 p.m. this Saturday) and a poetry reading (2 p.m. this Sunday). More details below. Hope to see you there!

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A Weekend Celebrating Asian American Culture in Humboldt

Eureka, CA – The community is invited to a weekend of festive and thought-provoking events honoring Asian American culture and history in Humboldt County. Running Friday, May 2 through Sunday, May 4, these activities include the Eureka Chinatown Street Festival, an original opera about the Eureka Chinatown expulsion, an art show by a dozen Humboldt artists of Asian descent, and a poetry reading by six local Asian American poets.

Most of the events are free and family-friendly. They are taking place as part of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Eureka Chinatown Street Festival

The Fourth Annual Eureka Chinatown Street Festival - Year of the Snake will take place on Saturday, May 3 in Eureka, CA during Arts Alive. This free and family-friendly event hosted by Humboldt Asians & Pacific Islanders in Solidarity (HAPI) will feature traditional and contemporary Asian dance and music performances, food and art vendors, and fun activities for all ages.

Lion Dancers from San Francisco will perform a traditional Chinese ritual intended to bring good fortune and drive away evil spirits; they will bless businesses from 4-6 p.m. in Old Town. Cultural performances will take place from 6-9 p.m. in front of the Clarke Historical Museum. Performers will include the Lion Dancers, Humboldt Taiko (a traditional Japanese drumming group), the Humboldt Lao Dancers, and the White Lotus Dance Group. This year the event features a condensed version of the opera “Echoes of Eureka”—see below.

HAPI began the Chinatown Street Festival in May of 2021 to honor the historic Eureka Chinatown and celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. The Eureka Chinatown Project (ECP) is an initiative of HAPI to reclaim and honor the history and culture of the historic Chinese community in Humboldt while raising awareness of the local Chinese expulsion events and the federal and state exclusionary acts that shaped society today. By educating the local community, HAPI hopes to heal and move towards a more inclusive and just future.

“Echoes of Eureka” opera about the Eureka Chinatown expulsion

Eric Tuan conducts the Piedmont Children’s Choir in “Echoes of Eureka,” an opera about the 1885 Eureka Chinatown expulsion.

Conductor and composer Eric Tuan has composed a new choral opera, “Echoes of Eureka,” about the 1885 expulsion and resistance of the Chinese community in Eureka. Some thirty youth from the Piedmont East Bay Children’s choir will perform this short opera three times during the weekend:

• “Echoes of Eureka” will premiere on Friday, May 2 at 7 p.m. at Cal Poly Humboldt in the Native Forum. Admission is free and open to the public.

• A shortened version will be performed in the evening of Saturday, May 3 during the Chinatown Street Festival in front of the Clarke Museum in Old Town Eureka.

• At 1 p.m. on Sunday, May 4, the choir will perform the opera in the rotunda at the Morris Graves Museum of Art. Admission is $5 for adults, $2 for seniors and students with ID and free for children 17 and under as well as museum members.

Based in the San Francisco Bay area, Eric Tuan is committed to joyful and inclusive music-making at the highest level and to telling vital, relevant stories through song. He currently serves as the Artistic Director of the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir and conductor of Stanford University’s Early Music Singers.

Ten Thousand Gates: A Celebration of Humboldt Asian American Artists

Ten Thousand Gates: A Celebration of Humboldt Asian American Artists features the work of twelve local artists of Asian descent: Karla Kaizoji Austin, Cate Be, Jeremy Hara, Ted Hsu, the late Suk Choo Kim, Ali Lee, Thao Le Khac, Amy Leon, Annette Makino, Yoshiko Skelton, Amy Uyeki and Libby Yee.

A dozen local Asian American artists are joining forces for a group show at the Morris Graves Museum of Art, with an opening during Arts Alive on Saturday, May 3 from 6 to 9 p.m. Titled Ten Thousand Gates: A Celebration of Humboldt Asian American Artists, the exhibition will run from April 26 to June 8.

The show title refers to the idea that those of Asian descent who live in Humboldt County straddle different cultures. There is an infinite variety of ways that artists express that complex reality; countless gates that connect those worlds.

The art ranges from traditional landscapes to contemporary street art. Aged 36 to 92, the participating artists work in various media and techniques including Chinese brush painting, ceramics, photography, spray paint, objects found in nature, airbrush, collage and digital art.

The artists are Karla Kaizoji Austin, Cate Be, Jeremy Hara, Ted Hsu, the late Suk Choo Kim, Ali Lee, Thao Le Khac, Amy Leon, Annette Makino, Yoshiko Skelton, Amy Uyeki and Libby Yee. The artists will be on hand during Arts Alive May 3 and will be happy to discuss their work and chat with visitors.

The museum will also feature an “East Meets West” concert during Arts Alive that evening featuring Silk Road Junction 101 with Fortuna-native Sarah McClimon on flute, harmonium and the koto, a Japanese string instrument, and Rahman Abdur on the South Asian tabla drums. Jazz pianist Noah Rahman will also perform.

Admission is free during Arts Alive. Other days, admission is $5 for adults, $2 for seniors and students with ID and free for children 17 and under as well as museum members. The museum is run by the Humboldt Arts Council.

Ink to Paper: A Reading by Asian American Poets of Humboldt

Ink to Paper: A Reading by Asian American Poets of Humboldt will feature original poetry by six poets, plus art slides. Top row, left to right: Annette Makino, Mark Shikuma, Shizue Harada (her poems will be read by her granddaughter Amy Uyeki). Bottom row, left to right: Daryl Ngee Chinn, Libby Yee, Tony Wallin-Sato.

In the first event of its kind for Humboldt, poets from the local Asian American community will gather for a joint reading of their work at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka on Sunday, May 4 at 2 p.m. following the “Echoes of Eureka” performance.

Ink to Paper: A Reading by Asian American Poets of Humboldt will feature poetry drawn from very different backgrounds, from the Zen-infused poems of incarceration and healing by Tony Wallin-Sato, to the tales of complex family and heritage dynamics by Mark Shikuma, to the verses from a long and eclectic life by Daryl Ngee Chinn.

Art slides will accompany three of the presentations: Annette Makino will show Asian-inspired collages that include her haiku; Libby Yee will share Chinese brush paintings along with her poems; and Amy Uyeki will screen artwork she created to accompany poems by her late grandmother, Shizue Harada, who came to the US from Japan in an arranged marriage in the 1920s. Ali Lee will serve as emcee and Kumi Watanabe will read Shizue Harada’s short poems in the original Japanese.

Books by some of the poets will be available for sale. Museum admission is $5 for adults; $2 for seniors (age 65 and over) and students with ID; children 17 and under free; museum members are free.

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Makino Studios News

Annette Makino gives the keynote speech on writing haiku at the ukiaHaiku Festival in Ukiah, CA on April 27, 2025.

ukiaHaiku Festival wrap-up: Last Sunday’s event was a lot of fun! I gave a well-received keynote about my haiku journey, the elements of effective haiku, haiku-related forms and why we write haiku. Held at the Grace Hudson Museum in Ukiah, CA, this festival included shakuhachi flute and a musical interlude with the Uketones. People of all ages and walks of life shared their haiku.

Open Studios: After several years off, I will be able to share my art and process during the 25th anniversary of North Coast Open Studios. I’ll be joining half a dozen international artists-in-residence plus local artists at Creekside Arts in Freshwater, CA on the second weekend, June 14-15.  

Mother’s Day and graduation: Mother’s Day is coming up on Sunday, May 11. Cal Poly Humboldt commencement is Saturday, May 17, and local high schools hold graduation in mid-June. See my card collection and local stores for these occasions and others.

Travel plans: I will be on vacation May 20 to June 8, and Makino Studios orders will go out more slowly while I’m gone. Sorry for the inconvenience!

A haikupalooza for Haiku Poetry Day

Today, April 17, is International Haiku Poetry Day, which falls in the middle of National Poetry Month. As it happens, I have four upcoming public events focused on poetry and art: a haiku festival, an art opening, a poetry reading and an open studios weekend. All very exciting—see below for dates and deets!

Every day last month, the Mann Library Daily Haiku site at Cornell University featured one of my haiku, selected by editor Tom Clausen. To celebrate Haiku Poetry Day, here are a dozen of my favorites. You can read all 31 poems here along with publication credits.

“maybe we too” is an 11x14 mixed media collage made with paper, acrylic paint, ink, colored pencil and glue on cradled birch panel. © Annette Makino 2024

for better or for worse
our lights and darks
tumbling together

home from errands—
a hero’s welcome
from the dog

our easy silence
every puddle
sky-deep

fog-shrouded coast
we listen
to the view

art studio
a full day’s work
under my nails

hunger moon
a descendent of wolves
licks our plates

lights out—
we discuss
our extinction

maybe I too
have softened with age
moss-covered stones

long before language the S of the river

cowlick
some part of me
still wild

what remains
of the mountain
sand between my toes

redwood time
the steady journey
from earth to sky

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Makino Studios News

ukiaHaiku Festival: The 23rd annual ukiaHaiku Festival takes place on Sunday, April 27, 2-4 p.m. at the Grace Hudson Museum’s Wild Gardens in Ukiah, CA. I’m honored to be the keynote speaker this year, a cool twist for a Ukiah High grad! The organizers write, “Join us to celebrate Ukiah’s palindrome with readings of past haiku contest winners from various local luminaries followed by an all-ages open mic for those who wish to read a haiku of their choosing.” It’s free and open to the public. I’ll have a Makino Studios table with some books, calendars, prints and cards.

A dozen artists ages 36 to 92 will show their work at “Ten Thousand Gates - A Humboldt Celebration of Asian Artists.”

Ten Thousand Gates - A Humboldt Celebration of Asian Artists: This art show at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka, CA will feature a dozen local artists of Asian descent. The show opens during Arts Alive on Saturday, May 3 from 6 to 9 p.m. The exhibition runs April 26 to June 8. The art ranges from traditional landscapes to contemporary street art. Techniques include Chinese brush painting, ceramics, photography, spray paint, junk art, airbrush, collage and digital art. The artists are Karla Kaizoji Austin, Cate Be, Jeremy Hara, Ted Hsu, the late Suk Choo Kim, Ali Lee, Thao Le Khac, Amy Leon, Annette Makino, Yoshiko Skelton, Amy Uyeki and Libby Yee.

Six poets will share their work at “Ink to Paper - A Reading by Asian American Poets of Humboldt.”

Ink to Paper - A Reading by Asian American Poets of Humboldt: This is the first public reading by poets from our local Asian American community. The event will take place at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka, CA on Sunday, May 4 at 2 p.m. Poets include Tony Wallin-Sato, Mark Shikuma, Daryl Ngee Chinn, Annette Makino, Libby Yee and Amy Uyeki reading poems by her grandmother, Shizue Harada. Three of us will show slides of our art with the poems.  

Asian and Pacific American Month: The art show and reading are among several Humboldt County events in May held in conjunction with Asian and Pacific American month. See the Humboldt Asians and Pacific Islanders in Solidarity (HAPI) site for details. Events also include a chorale opera about the Eureka Chinatown expulsion and a Chinatown street festival. 

Open Studios: After several years off, I will be able to share my art and process during the 25th anniversary of North Coast Open Studios. I’ll be joining half a dozen international artists-in-residence plus local artists at Creekside Arts in Freshwater, CA on the second weekend, June 14-15.  

Mother’s Day and graduation: Mother’s Day is coming up on Sunday, May 11. Cal Poly Humboldt commencement is Saturday, May 17, and local high schools hold graduation in mid-June. See my card collection for these occasions and others.

Travel plans: I will be on vacation May 20 to June 8, and Makino Studios orders will go out slowly while I’m gone. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Free shipping: I offer free US shipping on orders of $35 or more. Just enter promo code FREESHIP35 at checkout.  

In memory of my mother

“the shape of a life” is 11x14, made of acrylic paint, paper and glue on cradled wood. The original has sold but the image is available as a greeting card and is also part of the Makino Studios 2025 calendar.

My beloved mother, Erika Makino, passed away a month ago at age 96. I was by her bedside, holding her hand, and my two sisters had been with her in recent days and hours.

From growing up in Switzerland during World War II to traveling the world, teaching special education, writing stories and making art, my mom led a fascinating life, as described in her obituary. Also see “An Adventurous Spirit,” a much longer version of her life story with more photos.

I’m learning that no matter how old you are and no matter how inevitable it seemed, it is still really hard to lose your mom. Who else could love you like your own mother? It was not always easy to grow up as the child of a free spirit: money was tight, and somehow we were always moving. By age 16 I had lived in three countries, eleven cities and 20 homes, including two stints in campgrounds. But through it all, I never doubted my mom’s unconditional love for me. What a huge loss. What a huge gift.

Over the past month of mourning, I’ve found comfort in knowing that my mother led a long and full life, getting to do most everything she wanted even into her 90s. And she had the kind of death we all wish for: at home in bed, with loved ones near, in no pain, at peace. I’m also grateful for the ability to grieve, laugh and reminisce with my sisters.

Annette Makino, left, with mother Erika Makino in Santa Barbara in 2013.

Since then my mother has visited me several times in my sleep, a loving and comforting presence. Even in scenarios that involved corpses and coffins, the dream character of my mom conveyed that these were merely the outward trappings of death, while her spirit lives beyond. Other dreams have echoed our close bond: in one I asked her if she needed anything, and she replied simply, “hug.” In another I was washing her dear face with a washcloth, very tenderly, just as I did while caregiving for her in recent years.

My mother not only gave me unconditional love, she modeled how to live an authentic life. As one of my sympathy cards reads, “those we have loved are always with us.” I am truly blessed to be my mother's daughter and to carry her in my heart.

the shape of a life
one sparkling wave
returns to the sea

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Makino Studios News

Debut in Rattle poetry journal: This month I am honored to have my first appearance in the print version of Rattle, a general poetry journal with a 0.2% acceptance rate, one of the toughest poetry journals to get into. My haibun (prose with haiku), “Migration,” connects the monarch butterfly stopover near one of my childhood homes to my father’s absence.

Anniversary sale: To celebrate Makino Studio’s 14th anniversary on March 18, and in thanks for your years of support, I’m offering 14% off everything in the shop through Tuesday, March 18 at midnight. Enter code 14YEARS at checkout.

Featured poet at Mann Library site: I’m pleased to have a haiku featured every day in March on the Mann Library Daily Haiku site at Cornell University, curated by Tom Clausen. You can follow along on the site daily and find work by many other terrific haiku poets in the archives.

Red Moon Anthology: A haiku sequence I wrote last year about caregiving for my mother, “Shorter Days,” is included in Telling the Bees: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2024. I’m delighted to be included in this annual collection of the finest haiku published around the world.

Ten Thousand Gates: A Humboldt Celebration of Asian Artists: The Humboldt Arts Council will host a show by a dozen Humboldt County artists of Asian descent, including myself, at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka, CA, opening from 6 to 9 p.m. on Saturday, May 3 during Arts Alive.

Ink to Paper: I’m organizing an accompanying poetry reading and slide show of haiga (art with haiku) by Humboldt-area Asian-American poets at 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 4 at the Morris Graves. There are several other interesting Asian heritage events in Eureka in the works for that weekend; stay tuned . . .

Obituary: Erika Makino, 1928-2025

Erika Makino’s passport photo before she left to spend two years in Peru, circa 1958, age 29

Erika Beatrice Makino, aged 96, passed away peacefully at her home in Redwood Valley, California on February 7, 2025. The cause was respiratory failure.

She was an adventurous person, fascinated by other cultures, languages, and perspectives. A quiet woman with a strong spirit, she always followed her own path.

Erika was born on July 24, 1928 in Reinach, Switzerland, near Basel, to Marguerite (Stehle) and Emil Koenig, a newspaper editor. She had two older siblings, Walter and Rita.

She was 11 when World War II broke out in Europe in 1939. Since Basel is right on the border with Germany and France, one could see tracer fire between Germany and France and hear bombers flying overhead.

One day Erika’s mother bought backpacks in case the family had to flee into the Alps. While the others were deeply worried, it seemed to Erika that adventurous and exciting times were ahead.

Finally the war ended, but food was still rationed for some time. Each member of Erika’s family had a small cloth bag holding their portion of bread for the day, which her mother weighed out on a scale.

Erika attended the University of Basel, majoring in German literature with a minor in history. She focused on Europe in the late Middle Ages to the Renaissance. She once said, “It was a bridge to a new age like we are living in now.”

Teaching was one of the few acceptable career paths for women at that time. Not wanting to teach a large classroom of unruly children, Erika decided to go into special education.

But she felt constrained by the narrowness of life in Switzerland. So at 29, she decided to move to the United States, a big country with big possibilities.

Facing a two-year wait for a visa, she headed to Peru, traveling there by freighter. She worked as an au pair and later as a translator at the Swiss embassy in Lima.

Finally, Erika’s US visa came through. Instead of simply flying to the US, she decided to make the trip overland. The journey by bus, small plane and boat down the Amazon River took her three months.

In 1959, she arrived in the US and decided to move to San Francisco. On the day she had just one dollar left in her purse, she was offered a job at a school for intellectually disabled children.

A few years later, she earned a Master’s degree in German at UCLA. There she met and married Motoji Makino, a Japanese doctoral student in nuclear physics at the University of Southern California.

They moved to Claremont, California and then to Santa Monica to raise their three daughters, Annette, Yoshi and Yuri.

In 1971, the family spent five months in Takasaki, Japan, first living with Motoji’s parents in their traditional Japanese home. On their return to the States, the family lived in the Santa Barbara area while Motoji did post-doctoral research at UCSB.

Erika got involved with the women’s movement, forming some lifelong friendships. But the marriage did not survive, and Erika and Motoji divorced.

After Erika’s father died in 1976, she and her daughters moved to Switzerland for a year to spend time with Erika’s mother.

Erika always had a dream of living in the country. On the family’s return to the US, she bought three acres in rural Redwood Valley, near Ukiah in Northern California.

In the spring of 1979, the family moved into their newly built A-frame on a hillside covered with manzanita and madrone trees.

Erika pursued a variety of creative interests, including writing short stories. These often focused on the subtleties of relationships and inner landscapes. In 1993 she self-published a collection called Six of Cups: A Circle of Stories.

Erika loved visiting new places. In her 60s she traveled solo through North Africa by bus, making friends and receiving several marriage proposals. Then she spent several months in Ghana, in West Africa, teaching French.

Later she spent some months living and writing in Antigua, Guatemala, and likewise in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

At 80 she spent a few weeks walking the Way of St. James, a medieval pilgrimage route in Northwestern Spain. She went by herself, wearing a small backpack and gray Crocs.

Erika Makino hiking in Arcata Community Forest, Arcata, California, March 2020, age 91

Around 1997, Erika moved to Arcata, California to help with Annette’s two children, Maya and Gabriel. While there, she was active with the Arcata Zen Group.

In her early 70s she acquired two llamas and trained them to carry packs so she could still go on overnight hiking trips.

Erika moved back to her house in Redwood Valley in 2008. There she developed a passion for making semi-abstract sculptures of people and animals, working in clay and cement. She had a final show of her work in Ukiah at age 88.

When she was 90, she unexpectedly received a generous bequest from her college boyfriend. She was able to build a small art studio, realizing a long-held dream.

Erika was able to live out her final years at home thanks to her daughters, especially Yoshi, her main caregiver.

Through her life Erika always felt comfortable with people from “different realities.” Beyond her professional work, this gift of perceiving other energies allowed her to see past surfaces to understand, accept and appreciate everyone fortunate enough to know her.

Having lived a long and rich life, she said she was not afraid to die; she felt that death would be “like taking off a heavy backpack—and then you’re free!”

Clearly, she does not need a backpack for this next adventure.

Erika is survived by her daughters Annette Makino (Paul W. Blank) of Arcata, Yoshi Makino of Redwood Valley, and Yuri Makino of Tucson, Arizona; her grandchildren Maya, Gabriel, and Enakai; and her niece Karin Franz.

A celebration of Erika’s life will be held at the Grace Hudson Museum in Ukiah on Sunday, June 29 at 1 p.m. Donations in Erika’s memory can be made to Plowshares Peace and Justice Center in Ukiah.

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For a much fuller account of Erika’s life and more photos, see An Adventurous Spirit - Erika Makino’s Life Story

Read this obituary at the North Coast Journal

An Adventurous Spirit - Erika Makino's Life Story

Erika Makino in the Arcata Community Forest, Arcata, California, March 2020

In March 2020 I helped my mother Erika, then 91, to write the story of her amazing life.

— Annette Makino

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Erika Makino was born on July 24, 1928 in Reinach, outside Basel, Switzerland to Marguerite (Stehle) and Emil Koenig, a newspaper editor. She was the youngest child of three.

She was an adventurous person, fascinated by other cultures, languages, and perspectives. A quiet woman with a strong spirit, she always followed her calling and her own path.

The Koenigs lived in the countryside close to the city of Basel. Cows were pastured next door to the family home. Although her parents shopped and worked in town, Erika didn’t experience the city until she was five years old.

She spent much time playing outside, weather permitting. She has said that the cherry tree in the back yard was like a friend and recognized her. She loved to play in the sandbox with her brother Walter and sister Rita, building mountains, tunnels and roads.

Her first memory was of lying in her crib in the garden. Her unfamiliar great-aunts wanted to pick her up, but Rita protected her. When their mother returned from the house, both girls were crying.

Erika had a desire to travel from an early age. She had a picture book showing two Chinese people sitting on the ground, eating what looked like pink worms with sticks. It depicted other countries as strange and uncouth, but when Erika saw those pictures, she knew she wanted to travel to such strange  places.

In 1939 when she was 11, World War II broke out in Europe. Since Basel is right on the border with Germany and France, everyone was afraid that Hitler would invade at any moment. It was a very unsettling time. From Basel one could see tracer fire between Germany and France.

In all the darkness of those years, Erika had a happy moment. Her mother bought backpacks for everyone in the family in case they had to flee into the Alpine region. While the rest of the family was deeply worried, it seemed to Erika that adventurous and exciting times were ahead.

Years later when the Americans joined the war effort, a sigh of relief went through Western Europe. Everyone thought the war would be over in two weeks, but it would take two more years.

At night Erika woke to the drone of allied bombers flying overhead and dropping their loads over Germany. A few hours later, they returned; a vision of bombed houses, fire and screaming people haunted Erika.

Finally there was peace, but food and clothes were still rationed for some time. Gasoline was scarce also, but few people had cars then. Doctors and other people who needed to drive to make a living received a fair amount.

Erika remembers seeing a man carrying a box of eggs. Eggs were especially precious, and he must have saved his rations for a long time. He stumbled. In no time, a group of pedestrians stopped and observed the mess on the sidewalk with dismay and compassion.

Bread is a key component of most Swiss meals, so having very little bread was hard. Each member of Erika’s family had a small cloth bag holding their ration of bread for the day, which her mother weighed out on a scale.

Households were required to grow as many vegetables as possible, so Erika’s family planted potatoes in their lawn. All the parks were planted with food too.

Swiss teens had to help the war effort. The summer she turned 13, Erika was sent to work at a farm near Basel, where she helped the farmer’s wife in the fields and kitchen while the men were away protecting the border.

She enjoyed the field work like building  “teepees” with four sheaves of grain pushed together. She remembered how wonderful it was hiding inside those little huts when she was a child.

There were very few machines at that time, and the groaning, swaying wagons loaded house-high with sheaves of grain were pulled by horses. Erika remembers the huge butts of those animals; sometimes the farmers stepped on them with their boots.

She attended the Basel Mädchen Gymnasium for high school, where she developed an interest in foreign languages. As was typical for college-bound Swiss students, the study of foreign languages was required. She studied French for eight years, English for five years, and Italian (as an optional subject) for three years. She taught herself Spanish and later also Japanese from language records.

She attended the University of Basel, majoring in German literature with a minor in history. She focused on Europe in the late Middle Ages to the Renaissance (15th century). “It was a bridge to a new age like we are living in now,” she said.

She spent a year studying and polishing her French in Paris, reachable by a four- or five-hour train ride from Basel. She rented an apartment on an upper floor of a building in the Place Pigalle, which she only later realized was a bordello. It was so inexpensive to live in France after the war that she paid a month’s rent with a cheap Swiss watch.

Career options for women were limited at that time: being a teacher was one of the few acceptable paths. Not wanting to teach a large classroom of unruly children, Erika decided to go into special education. She earned a certificate in the field from the “Heilpädagogisches Seminar” with some classes taught at the University of Zürich. After college, she began working with intellectually disabled children.

Erika’s passport photo for her trip to Peru, circa 1957

At 29, when she had saved enough money, she decided she wanted to emigrate to the United States. “It was the land of the future,” she said. “Everything exciting came from America. Everything was so new, not so stale. It was fresh air. Through a chain of lucky circumstances, I was able to go there.”

Erika was following in the footsteps of her grandfather who lived in the US for several years around 1880 and whose journal she had read with interest. It sounded quaint to her but alluring.

Her brother Walter had written a dissertation on the US Constitution, which led to him getting a scholarship to Yale Law School. He then worked in a legal office in New York. His boss strongly supported immigration, and agreed to sponsor Erika by depositing $20,000 in a bank, even though he had never met her.

Erika learned there was a two-year wait for her to obtain a visa to the US. Rather than wait in Switzerland, she decided to spend the time in Peru, where many Swiss people lived. She wrote to the Swiss Embassy in Lima and they offered to help her find work.

She took a boat down the Rhine to Holland and from there a freighter to Callao, the port for Peru. In Lima she worked first as an au pair to a family of German-Austrians. They were Jews who had fled Europe shortly before World War ll. They hired Erika because she could speak German with their children.

Later she worked in the Swiss Embassy in Lima doing translation, especially Italian into German, and office work.

She traveled extensively around Peru before there was much tourism, including to Machu Pichu and Cuzco, the old capital. She remembers lines of Peruvian women in brightly colored skirts and small bowler hats, spinning wool on a spindle while walking.

When her US visa finally came through, Erika was just about to get a good job as the director of a school. Oh well!

Erika, second from left, on a boat on the Amazon River, possibly in Peru, circa 1960

Instead of simply flying to the US, she decided to make the trip to the North overland through South and Central America by bus, small plane and riverboat. She took her time, spending several days in some towns, especially in Guatemala. The journey took three months.

When she finally arrived at the US border in Nogales, Arizona and saw the US flag, it was exciting. She knew she was about to begin a new life.

However, there was a delay: “No immigrants after 5 p.m.” She was disappointed and went back to a hotel, wearily lugging her suitcase.

The next morning, a customs employee took Erika to a private room, where she had to undress to show that she wasn’t taking anything illegal across the border. Erika thought it was strange. It seemed the lady was interested in her wardrobe, her nude body or perhaps she wanted to humiliate her.

The fast and clean American buses, the plump, straight walls of the houses, the orderly streets and sidewalks were astonishing.

Erika decided to move to San Francisco, where she first stayed at the YMCA. It was a shock to be in the US. People didn’t smile at strangers. They seemed cold and reserved compared to the friendly people of South and Central America.

She rented an apartment and began looking for work. It was difficult. On the day she had just one dollar left in her purse, she was offered a job at the Lucinda Weeks School for intellectually disabled children. Erika was surprised that the director didn’t want to see her diplomas, certificates or letters of reference; this trusting, intuitive approach struck her as uniquely American.

After two years in the US, she was accepted as a resident. After five years she was able to apply for a citizenship. The prospective citizens had to take an examination. She realized that she was supposed to know the numbers of the amendments. She passed with flying colors anyhow.

Erika frequently visited the foreign student center of the University of Southern California. There she met a German student, Bob Goss, who introduced her to his wife Edith. The two women became friends for life.

Bob informed her that colleges were looking for teaching assistants to instruct German, but they had to be graduate students. So Erika applied to UCLA. When the admissions office studied her certificates, they advised her to go straight on to earn a Ph.D. Erika declined and limited herself to a smaller load, going for a master’s degree in German Studies.

Erika with daughter Annette, circa 1965

In her mid-thirties, she decided she wanted a child and figured that she could always get married later. She had a romance with a foreign grad student and in 1963 her daughter Annette was born. “Holding this baby in my arms was the happiest day of my life,” she said.

Erika and Annette lived in graduate student housing at UCLA while Erika finished her degree. An Indian woman, Mohini Pai, had a child of the same age and the two mothers arranged babysitting together.

Erika and Annette often went on Sierra Club hikes around the Los Angeles area, mother carrying Annette in a baby backpack.

Erika learned to drive in Los Angeles, with a baby in the back seat and a car that would stall in the middle of intersections. She often had to call a tow truck.

One of the most frightening events of her life was when she entered a freeway for the first time. In the rear view mirror she saw Annette standing up, having freed herself from the straps of the baby seat. As soon as she was able, Erika stopped, parked and adjusted the straps, her heart still beating in fear.

Erika and Motoji Makino on their wedding day, 1965

In 1965 Erika married Motoji Makino, a Japanese doctoral student in nuclear physics at the University of Southern California. They had met at a party for foreign students a few years earlier and gotten to know each other because Erika was interested in learning Japanese.

There was a broken table lamp in her apartment. Erika’s previous suitors had noticed it was broken and quit using it; Motoji immediately ran downstairs to his car, got out his tools, returned and fixed the lamp. “I thought, I’m in good hands with a guy like that,” she said.

The young family moved to Santa Monica. Soon there were two more daughters, Yoshi in 1966 and Yuri in 1967.

Erika with her daughters Annette, Yuri (in Erika’s arms) and Yoshi, Santa Monica, 1968

In 1971, when their house on Idaho Avenue was about to be demolished and Motoji was on an assignment on the East Coast, Erika and the girls moved to Takasaki, Japan for five months.

At first they lived with Motoji’s parents in a traditional Japanese home. It was a difficult dynamic for Erika: the in-laws didn’t want a babysitter for the children—a stranger in their house—but also didn’t want to babysit. Things went better when Erika and the children moved to a small house next door and had more independence. Motoji joined them a few months later.

On their return to the States after five months, the family lived in Santa Barbara in an elegant home with ocean view owned by one of Motoji’s professors. Later they moved to the nearby suburb of Goleta.

The women’s movement was exciting and new at the time. Erika got involved with the Santa Barbara chapter of the National Organization for Women.

Meanwhile, the marriage did not survive. Erika and Motoji divorced in 1973. Years later, Erika regretted the break she had initiated. “The trouble was that we—I—didn’t communicate,” she said. “The divorce was the worst mistake I made in my life.”

After Erika’s father died in 1976, she and her three daughters moved to Switzerland for a year to spend time with Erika’s newly widowed mother in Basel. Erika worked at an institute for epileptic children in Zürich and commuted back to Basel every weekend by train.

Later Erika and her children moved into a small commune in the  village of Russikon in the Zürich area, not far from her job. “I found it interesting to get to know all different types of people,” she said.

Erika had always had a dream of living in the country. On their return to the US, Erika started looking for a piece of land to buy with a small inheritance from her father. Meanwhile, as she was not working, her savings dwindled. It was such a stressful time, she threw up almost every day.

After many months of searching, she bought three acres in rural Redwood Valley, near Ukiah in Mendocino County, Northern California. The girls were so tired of the endless search, they didn’t even want to come out of the family’s red VW bus to see the land.

To save money while a small prefab A-frame house was constructed, the family lived first at a campground and then at the home for intellectually disabled men where Erika had started work teaching them life skills.

Although Erika’s position was state-funded, the home was run by a group she had never heard of called People’s Temple. While living there, Erika and her girls were shocked and horrified by the mass murder-suicide at Jonestown, Guyana in November 1978. Staff members at the home lost their children and other loved ones.

Erika’s home in Redwood Valley, California from 1979 to the end of her life.

But the spring of 1979 was also a happy and exciting time. Erika and her daughters moved into their new house on a hillside covered with manzanita, madrone and oak trees. This remained Erika’s home for the rest of her life.

She pursued a variety of creative interests, including writing semi-autobiographical short stories. These often focused on the subtleties of relationships and inner landscapes. In 1993 she self-published a collection of her work called Six of Cups: A Circle of Stories.

Besides frequent trips to Switzerland and other parts of Europe, Erika loved visiting new places. In her 60s she traveled solo through North Africa by bus, making friends and receiving several marriage proposals along the way.

Erika with young friends in Algeria, 1988

From Tamanrasset at the end of the bus line in the south of Algeria, she proceeded via a truck loaded high with dates. As the only paying passenger, she was allowed to sit next to the driver. A couple of locals travelled on top of the dates.

The crossing from one civilization to the other was astonishing. In contrast to the somber veiled females in the south of Algeria, suddenly there were women wearing colorful dresses.

The trip offered her a grim picture of the effect of climate change on land and people. A local man in Timbuktu, Mali, showed her around. With a sweeping motion of his arms he said, “In a generation or two all this will be covered with sand.” There was sadness and resignation in his voice.

Erika, center, in Duasi, Ghana, 1987

Erika heard of a work camp in Ghana for foreign students who were building latrines. Participants had to pay a fee. There was plenty of work but the tools were scarce and as soon as one person put down their shovel, three other students jumped up to grab it.

“We slept in dorms and I remember the mouse that ran over my face and woke me up,” she said. A few weeks later, she got a job teaching French at the International School in Accra, Ghana.

A few years later, Erika spent some months living and writing in Antigua, Guatemala. She had a task there. A young Swiss from a family she had befriended had died in that area years earlier. She found his grave, had flowers planted and the inscription on the stone repainted. She felt compassion for the young tourist who died alone in a foreign country.

Erika with grandson Gabriel, 2005

Not long before Erika’s granddaughter Maya was born in 1997, she moved to Arcata, California to help out. While living in Arcata, she was active with the Arcata Zen Group. She made close friends while living on their property and hosting events.

When her grandson Gabriel was born in 2001, she moved in with Annette’s family to help care for the children, living with them for six years.

Erika with her pack llamas, Shandy (left) and Dancer (right), at Mad River Beach, Arcata, California, 2003

In Arcata Erika had two llamas whom she trained to carry packs so she could still go on overnight hiking trips. Over seven years, they became good companions.

At age 80 she took a few weeks to walk the Way of St. James by herself. This is a medieval pilgrimage route in Northwestern Spain that had always fascinated her. She went by herself, wearing a small backpack and gray Crocs.

“Sometimes in between hostels, I was all by myself, and I felt the power of the landscape and of the trail that had carried countless pilgrims over centuries,” she said. “It was impossible not to be awed.”

From Spain she flew to Thailand for a couple of months of travel, and then on to Japan, a place she loved.

Erika with a semi-abstract cement sculpture of a dinosaur, 2003

Erika developed a passion for making semi-abstract sculptures, mostly of people and animals, working in clay, cement and adobe. “I had always admired sculptors, but thought it was only for people who had talent—not me,” she said.

She had once taken a ceramics class at the Mendocino Art Center. “I found this activity wonderful, I would like to do this for the rest of my life, but then I didn’t do it for about 30 years, and only when I was 80 I started doing it every day.” She had several exhibits of her work in Ukiah, California, the most recent at age 88.

On Erika’s first day at the University of Basel, a young man started chatting with her in the lobby. This was the beginning of a 70-year friendship with Arthur Rath.

He was a German Jew who had managed to escape from the Nazis but sadly lost many of his family members in the holocaust. Arthur had fled from Germany to Holland, to the north of France, to the south of France, always running from the invading German army. When he arrived in Switzerland he finally felt safe.

At age 90 Erika received an unexpected inheritance from Arthur. With the money he left her, Erika had a small yurt built on her land to serve as an art studio for making clay sculpture, realizing a longtime dream.

Through her life Erika always felt comfortable with people from “different realities.” Beyond her professional work, this gift of perceiving other energies allowed her to see past surfaces to understand, accept and appreciate the people she met.

•

The Makino-Blank family in December 2025 in Arcata, California. Back row, left to right: Gabriel, Paul, Annette, Maya. Front row: Enakai, Yuri, Erika, Yoshi

Erika died peacefully in her sleep at her home in Redwood Valley, California on February 7, 2025. The cause was respiratory failure. She was surrounded in her last days and moments by her daughters Annette, Yoshi and Yuri. She was 96.

Having lived a long and rich life, Erika once said that she was not afraid to die. She felt that death would be “like taking off a heavy backpack—and then you’re free.”

Erika is survived by her daughters Annette Makino (Paul W. Blank), Yoshi Makino, and Yuri Makino, her grandchildren Maya Makino, Gabriel Blank, and Enakai Makino, and her niece Karin Franz.

Erika Beatrice Makino
July 24, 1928 - February 7, 2025

Erika with granddaughter Maya, her llama Shandy and Maya’s bearded dragon lizard Stardust, 2004

Erika with daughter Yuri and grandson Enakai, Tucson, Arizona, 2014

Left to right: Annette, Yuri, Erika and Yoshi Makino, Arcata, July 2023

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

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

$5.00

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