Pictured is the cover of Annette Makino's new book, "Water and Stone." College Cove is seen in the background.
EUREKA TIMES-STANDARD, EUREKA, CA, AUGUST 25, 2021
In this fractured world, a new book by award-winning haiku poet and artist Annette Makino hopes to provide a dose of Zen wisdom and humor. “Water and Stone: Ten Years of Art and Haiku” is a full-color collection that spans a decade of Makino’s paintings and poems.
“As I celebrated 10 years as a working artist this year, I decided to publish a book of the best of my art and haiku over that time,” Makino said. “Locals will recognize many beloved Humboldt landscapes like Moonstone Beach, College Cove, the Klamath River and Redwood National Park, plus native plants and animals.”
“Water and Stone” features 50 haiga — artworks combined with haiku — painted with Japanese watercolors and sumi ink. In the first full-length collection of her art and haiku, 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.
Sprinkled throughout the collection are 15 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 a place in the world.
Stephen Addiss, author of “The Art of Haiku,” has praised the book, saying, “With the publication of ‘Water and Stone,’ Annette Makino takes her place among the leaders of haiku painting (haiga).”
Annette Makino.
Makino is an award-winning haiku poet and artist based in Arcata who combines Japanese-inspired paintings and collages with her poems. Her work has appeared in the leading English-language haiku and haiga journals and anthologies. Makino’s poems have won honors in the Touchstone Awards, the Henderson Haiku Contest, the Brady Senryu Contest, the Porad Haiku Award, and the Jane Reichhold International Prize, among others.
Through the art business she founded in 2011, Makino Studios, she shares her haiga and offers prints, greeting cards and calendars of her art.
Published by Makino Studios, “Water and Stone” is 124 pages and features full color. It is sold in Eureka at Eureka Books, Eureka Natural Foods and the North Coast Co-op; in Arcata at the North Coast Co-op, Northtown Books, Plaza and Wildberries Marketplace; in McKinleyville at Blake’s Books, Eureka Natural Foods and Miller Farms; and in Trinidad at the Trinidad Trading Company. The book is also available at www.makinostudios.com or amazon.com for $24.99 plus tax and shipping.
For more information, visit www.makinostudios.com or call 707-362-6644.