My first collage show!

wind blowing upriver
one of the ripples
becomes an otter

“wind blowing upriver” depicts the Trinity River. It is 11x14, made from Japanese washi papers and book pages. These were painted, torn, and glued on a cradled birch panel, then embellished with charcoal and pencil.

Long, long ago, in February 2020, I flew to Tucson for an inspiring three-day workshop called “Wabi Sabi: The Spirit of Collage,” with artist Donna Watson.

Of course, the world shut down a month later—and as a result, my regular Makino Studios business dropped off significantly. I used the unexpected free time to pivot from the watercolor painting I had been doing for a decade to explore collage-making. (See A silver lining amid the pandemic.)

Fast forward two and a half years, and I am excited to present the first show of my new collage work, opening this Saturday, September 3!

Humboldt friends, I’d love to see you at the opening. It takes place at Just My Type in Old Town Eureka from 6 to 9 p.m. during Arts Alive. For those who can’t come in person, I will post my new work in my Makino Studios online gallery this Saturday for a virtual opening.

Called “Torn Together,” the show will feature thirty Asian-inspired collages, including several brand-new ones made during my two river retreats this summer. Northern California landscapes and animals are a major theme.

The pieces are made from painted and embellished paper that I then tear, glue and mount onto cradled birch panels. The papers, which start out white, include Japanese washi papers, old letters, book pages, and maps. On a nearby placard, an original haiku will accompany each piece.

Just My Type Letterpress Paperie is located at 235 F Street near 3rd Street in Old Town Eureka. Masks are strongly encouraged.

This solo show runs through September. It is made possible in part by a grant from the Ink People’s Funds for Artists’ Resilience.

The haiku “wind blowing upriver” was first published in Kingfisher, Issue 2, December 2020

Process shots: I paint and assemble potential papers, then tear and glue the pieces.

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Makino Studios News

North Country Fair: I am really looking forward to my first big fair since 2019! The North Country Fair takes place on the Arcata Plaza the weekend of Sept. 17-18 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Makino Studios booth will once again be located on G Street near Moore’s Sleep World. I’ll have my brand-new 2023 mini-calendars and ten new card designs on hand! This is the only in-person fair I plan to do for the rest of this year.

2023 calendars: For the tenth year in a row, I have created a mini-calendar of art and haiku—and this might be my best yet! Featuring natural scenes and original words, the calendar is currently being printed and should be available on this site and in local stores in mid-September.

New card designs: There are also ten new card designs at the press, expected back in time for the North Country Fair and soon to be listed on the Makino Studios site.

Obon Festival: Humboldt’s first Obon Festival took place on Aug. 14, and it was a dynamic gathering of our community as well as a chance to honor our ancestors. Taiko drummers, bon odori dancing, bento boxes, games for kids and arts and crafts booths like mine—what fun! Many thanks to Humboldt Asian Pacific Islanders in Solidarity (HAPI) for organizing it.

Summer vacation for the mind

“cloud sun cloud,” which sold recently, is 8x10. It was created with painted book pages, washi papers and glue on birch wood. Art © Annette Makino 2021.

An earlier version of the haiku was published in Frogpond 36:1 (Winter 2013); reprinted in A VAST SKY: An Anthology of Contemporary World Haiku, edited by Bruce Ross, Koko Kato, Dietmar Tauchner and Patricia Prime, Tancho Press, 2015; and in Wishbone Moon (Women’s Haiku Anthology), edited by Roberta Beary, Ellen Compton, Kala Ramesh; Jacar Press; 2018.

Well, the news is certainly grim these days. Appalling Supreme Court rulings on abortion and climate change. Multiple mass shootings. The ongoing assault on democracy. The grinding war in Ukraine. The endless Covid pandemic (and please don’t talk to me about monkeypox, I can’t even).

But just for today, I’m going to set all that aside. Instead, I want to share some fun haiku on the general theme of summer travel. Here’s hoping this small dose of humor and lightness will help carry you through these dark days—a mini-vacation for the mind.

the cramped seats
in Economy
mini pretzels

Kingfisher Journal, Issue 2, December 2020

palm frond hut
all night the rooster
announcing dawn

Presence, Issue 68, December 2020

beginning Spanish
I practice staying
in the present

Kingfisher Journal, Issue 1, June 2020

desert flower
I try to pee
generously

Kingfisher Journal, Issue 1, June 2020

Grand Canyon our very small talk

Frogpond, Vol. 43:1, Winter 2020

white hill town
the herder shakes down cherries
for his goats

Presence, Issue 68, December 2020

Following is a rengay, a form of linked verse written together with Cynthia Anderson.

Western Wind

worn atlas
his finger travels
a new route

airing out
the musty suitcase

open road
the dog’s ears
streaming

western wind
the first whiff
of ocean

a row of sand dollars
on the front porch

rocking chair
his head nodding
with the waves

Annette Makino
Cynthia Anderson

Hedgerow, Issue 137, published Dec. 31, 2021

Despite all the madness, here’s wishing you a happy Fourth of July weekend and a fun and relaxing summer!

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Thanks Ukiah! I had a great time reading my poems at the ukiaHaiku Festival in May (shown above), and again as the featured reader for the Writers Read series at the Grace Hudson Museum last week. I appreciate everyone who turned out!

Makino Studios News

Merit Book Award: I am thrilled that Water and Stone: Ten Years of Art and Haiku has received Honorable Mention for Haiga in the Merit Book Awards sponsored by the Haiku Society of America! The commentary by judges Agnes Eva Savich and Bill Cooper was just published in Frogpond: “Perfectly painted pretty colors, poignant haiku, the best kind of storytelling haibun: this decade’s worth of the artist-poet’s work contains all the delights one could dream of from an inspiring haijin of our greater haiku family.” [NOTE: A haijin is someone who writes haiku.]

Art retreat: I will be on a creative retreat the week of July 9-16, writing haiku and making collages. So please get your orders in this coming week!

Solo show: The first-ever show of my collage art will take place at Just My Type in Old Town Eureka, CA in September, with an opening during Arts Alive! on Saturday, September 3. This show is made possible in part by an Artists’ Resilience Grant from The Ink People Center for the Arts.

Studio Space premieres tonight!

“the song of the creek” is 8x10, made of painted papers on birch wood panel. You may see me working on it in the “Women of Washi” episode of Studio Space, which airs tonight. The original collage went to a new home this past Sunday. 

With the highest per capita number of artists in California, Humboldt County is an exceptionally creative community. Our local PBS station, KEET-TV, has produced the second season of a fascinating series on Northern California artists called Studio Space. I’m thrilled to be one of the two featured artists in the episode that debuts tonight. 

The 28-minute segment, called "Women of Washi," profiles Lori Goodman and me working in our art studios and talking about our backgrounds, inspirations and processes. Humboldt folks, tune in to KEET at 7:30 Pacific time tonight, Thursday, May 5 for the world premiere.

People everywhere can also watch it online for free for the following three weeks. After that, it will go behind a paywall for non-KEET members. See Studio Space for all episodes, featuring a great diversity of artists, mediums and approaches.

Since Thursday is also Cinco de Mayo, our extended family is planning a viewing party with tacos and margaritas. I haven’t seen my episode yet. We’ll either celebrate my 14 minutes of fame or drown our sorrows if I bombed!

my Spanish starting to flow margaritas

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It was great fun to do my first public Makino Studios event since 2019. Many thanks to all who came out to the Pizza & Pottery Festival this past Sunday! 

Makino Studios News

Award for Water and Stone: The Haiku Society of America announced today that my book of art and haiku, Water and Stone, has won Honorable Mention in their Merit Book Awards! The book is sold online here, on Amazon and in local stores.

Artists’ Resilience Grant: The Ink People Center for the Arts has just awarded me a grant from their Funds for Artists’ Resilience. I’m very grateful for this pandemic-era support, made possible by the Humboldt Area Foundation and the Wild Rivers Foundation.

Solo Show in September: The grant will help me to create new work for a show of my collages, to be held at Just My Type in Eureka, California in September. Stay tuned for details!

ukiaHaiku Festival: I’ll give a brief presentation and reading at the 20th anniversary of this haiku festival in my hometown of Ukiah, CA. The event will include a dance performance, koto and shakuhachi music, and songs performed by the Haikukuleles! I’ll also have my books, prints and cards for sale. The ukiaHaiku Festival is free and takes place Sunday, May 15 at 2 p.m. at the Grace Hudson Museum. Attendees will have the chance to read up to three of their haiku.

Writers Read: On Thursday, June 23 at 7 p.m., I’ll be back at the Grace Hudson Museum in Ukiah as the featured reader in this long-running series, with a slide show of my haiga (haiku art) as well as a table of my art and haiku wares. Open mike follows.

New notecard sets: By popular demand, I’m offering boxed notecard sets again, including a new animal series as well as an updated landscape series.

A few cards suitable for graduation.

Prints to order: I’ve recently posted several of my designs on Fine Art America, where you can order them the size you want and even have them framed. If you’d like a print of a piece in my gallery that you don’t see on FAA, let me know so I can post it for you.

Graduation: Commencement for many schools is Saturday May 14 and others soon follow, so make sure you have cards for your grads! Yes, I’ve got some options, see left and shop all cards.

North Coast Open Studios: After a two-year pandemic hiatus, this event is taking place again June 4-5 and June 11-12 at artist studios around Humboldt County. I’m not officially part of it this year, but am always happy to give studio tours by appointment.

A handful of haiku for Haiku Poetry Day

“dogwood blossoms” is 8x10, made of painted washi and other papers glued onto cradled wood. © Annette Makino 2021

This Sunday is both Easter and International Haiku Poetry Day! To celebrate, I’m sharing a sampling of my published haiku and senryu (haiku’s wry, funny cousin).

Easter brunch
even the teen
is risen

Frogpond, 44.1, Winter 2021; String Theory: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2021, Ed. Jim Kacian and the Red Moon Editorial Staff, 2022

Covid variant
another wave sucks the sand
from under our feet

Mariposa, #46, Spring/Summer 2022

seventy-one now
he chooses to leave
the candles burning

Modern Haiku, 53.1, Winter-Spring 2022

ponderosas
the soft thud of snow
landing on snow

The Heron’s Nest, 13.2, June 2021

a thousand-piece puzzle deeper into winter

The Heron’s Nest, 14.1, March 2022

again I fail
the robot test
winter solitude

The Heron’s Nest, 13.1, March 2021

writer’s block
the saw-whet owl’s
one-note tune

Modern Haiku, 51.1, Winter-Spring 2020

ninety-one—
she decides she’s done
reusing teabags

Kingfisher, Issue 1, June 2020

lifting fog
color seeps back
into the dunes

Modern Haiku, 51.2, Summer 2020

dogwood blossoms
the catch and release
of evening light

The Heron’s Nest, 12.4, December 2020

wind blowing upriver
one of the ripples
becomes an otter

Kingfisher, Issue 2, December 2020

all-day sunset
leaves coated in ash
from a distant forest 

Kingfisher, 4, November 2021

still waiting
to outgrow my freckles
silver oaks

Frogpond, 44.3, Autumn 2021

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Makino Studios News

Etsy strike: Along with more than 20,000 other Etsy vendors, I’ve put my Etsy shop on vacation mode to support the strike this week. Etsy recently announced it is raising seller fees by 30% while making record profits. I've had an Etsy shop since 2011, but over the years, the corporation has gotten greedier and less respectful of makers. As a result, I have greatly reduced my offerings there and sell most of my cards etc. on my main site here. You can support independent creators by boycotting Etsy thru Monday, April 18 and buying directly from Etsy sellers instead. Thank you! 

The episode featuring Lori B. Goodman and me, called “Women of Washi,” will debut Thursday, May 5 at 7:30 p.m. You can watch it online for free for the following three weeks via www.studiospace.tv.

Studio Space: I’m honored to be included among the 20 terrific Humboldt County artists featured on Season 2 of Studio Space, the popular series produced by our local PBS station, KEET-TV, which started on April 7. The episode featuring Lori B. Goodman and me, called “Women of Washi,” will debut Thursday, May 5 at 7:30 p.m. You can watch it online for free for the following three weeks, and then it goes behind a paywall for non-KEET members. See www.studiospace.tv for all episodes.

Pizza and Pottery: Join Peggy Loudon, Patrica Sennott, half a dozen other artists and me at a lovely May Day art fair on Sunday, May 1 from 11 to 5 at 135 Sunkist Lane, McKinleyville (park on Cummins Lane). Hosts Lauren and Mariah Sarabia are gourmet chefs who will offer wood-fired pizza and other goodies. Rain cancels.

ukiaHaiku Festival: I’ll give a brief presentation and reading at the 20th anniversary of this haiku festival in my hometown of Ukiah, CA. I’ll also have books, prints and cards for sale. This free event takes place Sunday, May 15 at 2 p.m. at the Grace Hudson Museum.

Writers Read: On Thursday, June 23 at 7 p.m., I’ll be back at the Grace Hudson Museum in Ukiah as the featured reader in this series, with a slide show of my haiga (haiku art) as well as a table of my art and haiku wares.

New notecard sets: By popular demand, I’m offering boxed notecard sets again, including a new animal series. I hope to have these back from the printer by the end of the month.

Prints to order: I’ve recently posted several of my designs on Fine Art America, where you can order them the size you want and even have them framed. If you’d like a print of a piece in my gallery that you don’t see on FAA, let me know so I can post it for you.

Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 8! Order these and other cards here.

Mother’s Day and graduation: Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 8 and many graduation ceremonies follow soon afterwards, so make sure you have your cards and gifts! I have a variety of cards for both occasions. And would your mom or grad appreciate a copy of Water and Stone: Ten Years of Art and Haiku, or a signed art print by a local artist?

North Coast Open Studios: After a two-year pandemic hiatus, this event is taking place again June 4-5 and June 11-12 at artist studios around Humboldt County. I’m not sure if I will be participating as an artist as I don’t have a great place to host the public, but let me know if you have any leads on potential spaces. This is a great opportunity to visit local artists!

Celebrating 11 years!

Tomorrow will mark exactly eleven years since I launched this website and in that moment, Makino Studios was born! The website, the business, my art and the world have gone through quite a few changes since then. Deepest thanks to my customers and fans for supporting my work all these years!

To celebrate, I’m offering 20% off everything on my site for four days, through this Sunday at midnight. Use code 11YEARS at checkout. This site is only set up to ship within the US but if you live overseas, shoot me a message and we’ll work it out. Mother's Day and graduation are just around the corner!

As a sweet anniversary gift, my book, Water and Stone, recently got two more lovely reviews. An excerpt from the review in Frogpond, the journal of the Haiku Society of America: “While this book is clearly meant to showcase the haiga, I don’t want to overlook the universal appeal of her haibun, which speak directly to the reader’s heart about such topics as parenthood, being an artist, time passing, beloved pets, family history, and the natural world around us. There is so much to love and appreciate in this book, which I would also highly recommend as the perfect gift for a haiku poet to share with non-haiku-poet family and friends.”

And an excerpt from the Modern Haiku review: “This first full-length collection presents fifty haiga and fifteen autobiographical haibun by a poet whom Stephen Addiss places ‘among the leaders of haiku painting.’ . . . Love, indeed, is what seems to inspire Makino’s haiga, visually rendered in Japanese watercolors and sumi ink in an unpretentious style that illustrates and interprets her charming haiku.”

You can find the book online here, on Amazon and in some local stores.

I’m also excited that Season 2 of Studio Space, a series on Humboldt County artists, will debut on KEET-TV and online on April 7 at 7:30 p.m.! One episode features artist Lori Goodman and me. I will let you know once I hear when it will air. The shows will be available to stream online for free for three weeks, then will be available only to PBS members.

Below is a sampling of my new and updated cards. You can browse the whole collection here, plus find 2022 calendars (now on sale for $8), art prints and a gallery of my work.

Thanks again for inspiring and motivating me to keep creating.

congratulations card with swimming salmon - collage card for grads etc. (430)

$5.00

funny birthday card of honeybees in a hive- watercolor art (424)

$5.00

funny rooster birthday card for kids and adults (432)

$5.00

sympathy card of bare trees and evening sky - watercolor with poem (427)

$5.00

Sunflowers for Ukraine

“shine on!” is 5x7, made with paper, acrylic paint and glue on illustration board. A card version is available here. © Annette Makino 2020

For the past week I’ve been consumed with the news of the war in Ukraine. In my past life in international development at Internews, I worked with Ukrainians committed to developing professional and independent media in their country. 

I have fond memories of a long-ago work trip to Kyiv: onion domes of Orthodox churches glittering golden in the sun. Children gazing at park statues honoring World War II soldiers. Vendors selling Ukrainian crafts and Soviet artifacts by the wide Dnieper River. The little shop where my Ukrainian colleague bought me a beautiful silk scarf I was admiring. It’s hard to imagine that whole world under attack right now. 

And yet it is truly inspiring to see how bravely Ukrainians of all stripes are responding to Putin's aggression. One viral video shows a woman offering sunflower seeds to a heavily armed Russian soldier, telling him, “Take these seeds and put them in your pockets so at least sunflowers will grow when you all lie down here.”

Kudos also to the courageous Russians who are resisting despite great personal risk. These include the 77-year old activist and survivor of the Siege of Leningrad, Yelena Osipova, who was detained by eight police officers for protesting in St. Petersburg. Even Russian children have been jailed for bringing flowers to the Ukrainian embassy.

It can be overwhelming to read about so much suffering, including the one million(!) Ukrainians so far who have been forced to leave their country. Here in my warm, comfortable house, I feel for all those who have fled their homes to spend days underground in subway stations. My heart also goes out to the young, ill-prepared Russian soldiers who were told they were going on training exercises, or that Ukrainians would welcome them with open arms.

I try to remind myself to just do what I can. I keep a quote by author Clarissa Pinkola Estés on my desktop: “Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach.” 

refugee news
I rescue a spider
from the kitchen sink

Since the sunflower is Ukraine’s national flower, I’m joining other artists who are sharing sunflower art in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. To the Ukrainian people and to all who are resisting this brutal and senseless war, we see you and we salute you. Shine on!

(“refugee news” was first published in The Heron’s Nest, Volume XXIII, Number 4: December 2021)

Here’s hoping for brighter days ahead for Ukraine. (Photo: Annette Makino)

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Makino Studios News

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

Sale on 2022 mini-calendars: My mini-calendars, featuring 12 colorful Asian-inspired collages with my original haiku, are now on sale for $9.99 (from $12.00).

Free shipping: I offer free first-class shipping on US retail orders of $35 or more. Use code FREESHIP35 at checkout.

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.