Finding a warm community

software update
the maple releasing
its obsolete

                       l

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                                       a

                                v

                       e

                            s

“software update” is 11x14, made with acrylic paint, paper, pen and glue on cradled wood. This is a page from my 2025 calendar. A card version reads, “have a wild and crazy birthday”. © Annette Makino 2024

I had a wonderful time at the Seabeck Haiku Getaway last month! It was four days of marinating in all things haiku with fellow poets in beautiful Seabeck, Washington.

Since the conference theme was maps, I recruited my geographer husband, Paul W. Blank, to lead a “Walk on the World” session with his giant maps that show the world at 16 miles to the inch. It was great fun wandering across Eurasia in our stocking feet! Many haiku emerged from his session and others.

The schedule was packed with presentations and “Write Now” exercises, many on the theme of maps and travel. Featured guest Crystal Simone Smith shared her moving haiku inspired by 19th century fugitive slave ads; she also led us in exploring new haiku approaches.

The Seabeck Haiku Getaway always includes a kukai, a contest of haiku written at Seabeck that is judged by the participating poets. I was honored that both of my submissions placed, tying for first and sixth. Here is my first-place poem:

Geographer Paul W. Blank, far right, explains the big maps at the Seabeck Haiku Getaway in October 2024.

Tokyo alley
I run into
the moon from home

But for me, the best part of the long weekend was deepening my ties to the haiku clan. During communal mealtimes, walks in the woods and late-night socializing, I got to reconnect with poet friends and meet others I’d only known by name. Basking in this community was especially precious to me since I live far from any in-person haiku groups.

Earlier this year haiku poet P. H. (Peter) Fischer and I co-edited the conference anthology for the 2023 Seabeck Haiku Getaway. Published by Haiku Northwest, it was distributed at last month’s gathering. Winds Aloft features terrific cover art of Seabeck and six haiku comics by graphic novelist David Lasky, as well as poems by almost all of the 56 conference participants that year. Here’s one of mine inspired by the bigleaf maples at Seabeck:

the last rays of sun
offered back to the sky
yellow maple

As Peter and I wrote in the introduction, “Haiku poets are a special breed. The habit of keenly observing life’s details tends to make people more attuned, thoughtful and appreciative. Or perhaps it works the other way around. In any case, each year this unique tribe gathers at Seabeck to create a warm community of like-minded folks. In the words of physicist Douglas Hofstadter, in this kind of synergy, ‘The soul is greater than the hum of its parts.’ We appreciate everyone who added their own unique hum to the magic that is Seabeck.”

In these turbulent times, we need community more than ever. So on this, my eighth time at Seabeck, I was grateful once again to be welcomed into the fold.

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Makino Studios News

These are just four of the notecard sets on sale at 20% off in the Cards section. Sale ends this Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024.

SALE on notecards: I’m offering 20% off all holiday and everyday notecard sets. These come eight to a box with eight kraft envelopes. Normally $20, they are on sale through midnight this Sunday, Nov. 17 for $16 with promo code NOTECARD20. Most of these designs are also available as single cards with words.

2025 calendars: So far this season, more than 500 of my mini-calendars of art and haiku have gone out the door! Still just $12 each, these lovely little calendars make great gifts for friends and family.

Greeting cards: You can find most of my newest single cards at the top of this collection of 70 designs. These cards are made with fiber from responsibly managed forests and the mill uses green energy and carbon offsets. They are printed in Arcata, California by an independent small business and go for $5 each.

Holiday shipping deadlines: For arrival on or before December 25, please place your order no later than December 17. The mail has been slow these days, so even sooner is safer!

Made in Humboldt Fair: This event at Pierson Garden Shop in Eureka, CA runs through Dec. 24. There you can find my book (Water and Stone: Ten Years of Art and Haiku), signed and matted prints, 2025 calendars and notecard sets.

Arcata Holiday Craft Market: This fundraiser for the Arcata Recreation Department’s youth scholarship program takes place Dec. 14-15 at the Arcata Community Center in Arcata, CA. Look for the Makino Studios booth on the lefthand side of the main room. This is my only in-person event this season and I will be offering some deals and closeouts.

Social: I’ve given up on Twitter/X, but I regularly post art, haiku, news and more on Instagram and Threads as @annettemakino and on Facebook as Makino Studios (links below). See you over there!

Thanks: I always appreciate your feedback, whether by email, on social media or here in the comments.

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Credit: “the last rays of sun” - 5th place tie, kukai at Seabeck 2023; in Winds Aloft: 2023 Seabeck Haiku Getaway Anthology, Eds. Annette Makino and P H. Fisher, Haiku Northwest, 2024

The tale of three sisters and a blank calendar

“egret wings” is 8x10, made with paper, acrylic paint, pen and glue on cradled wood. It is part of the Makino Studios 2025 calendar of art and haiku. A card version reads, “wishing you a wonder-full birthday”. © Annette Makino 2024

First of all, I’m excited to share that my 2025 calendars have arrived! This is the twelfth year in a row that I’ve produced a mini-calendar of my art and haiku (and they are still only $12). I’m so pleased to be able to share the culmination of a year’s worth of art-making with you.

fresh calendar
the squares empty
with promise

But today I want to tell you about the deep roots of this calendar project. I co-produced my first art calendar back in 1976, at the ripe old age of 13. My mother, two younger sisters and I were living in Basel, Switzerland with my elderly grandmother that year. One fall afternoon, my mom brought home a calendar for the following year with a blank space for each month’s image. She asked us three girls to create the art. We set to work with our colored markers on the floor of our shared bedroom. I remember drawing a scene of the birch woods near my grandmother’s house, fiery in yellow and orange leaves. Our mom, who always encouraged our creativity, loved the calendar.

"Another Makino Production" - art calendars by Erika, Annette, Yoshi and Yuri Makino

Back in the US the next year, we three created another calendar from scratch, photocopied it and gave copies to close friends and family for the holidays. We continued to make these every year through our teens and college years, labeling them “Another Makino Production.”

Through the 70s we drew unicorns, butterflies and mimes. In the early 80s these gave way to punk/New Wave-inspired designs and absurdist pen and ink sketches with titles like “Mr. Zapkins Takes a Bath.” When we were in late high school and college, the calendars included portraits of boyfriends and, in the case of my sister Yoshi, detailed assignments from art school. Besides pen and ink drawings, we featured scratch board art, black and white photos and linoleum block prints—anything that would Xerox well.

"Birth of Annette" by Annette Makino, December 1966 (age 3-1/2).

But as we got busy with the rest of life, it became harder to come up with four artworks apiece. One year we stretched our offerings by producing a “special artistic retrospective” that featured some charmingly strange drawings from our toddler days. One depicted my birth, or so I explained at the time. We also included sketches by our mom, Erika, as a guest artist.

Untitled, by Yuri M., produced around 3 a.m. some night in late 1980 (age 13)

Another year, my sister Yuri stayed up till 3 a.m. the night before our deadline, making a sketch of one of her running shoes, laces trailing. It was a decent likeness, but oddly small and pathetic on the page. It looked like the desperate last-minute measure that it was, and we have laughed about it ever since. Though my sisters and I stopped producing our calendar in 1987, my collection is a precious time capsule of our youth.

Fast waaaay forward to 2013, and I created the first Makino Studios calendar of my art and haiku. To my surprise, the 400 calendars I printed that year sold out—even though my customers were not all blood relatives! Over the past dozen years, these annual calendars have continued to earn fans—I love hearing how people ship them to friends around the country and abroad. And my sisters still provide valuable critiques of my works in progress.

November rain
the swaying palms
on the calendar

While my artistic technique has improved since I was 13, I still get just as much pleasure from creating a usable collection of art and sharing it with the world. In fact, I consider the Makino Studios mini-calendar to be a tiny rotating art gallery. Thanks to all who have served as curators by hanging one on your wall! There are no unicorns (or running shoes) in the 2025 edition, but I hope you will enjoy it all the same.

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Makino Studios News

These 2025 mini-calendars measure  5-1/2” wide by 7” tall closed (5-1/2” x 14” open). The calendar includes an artist’s bio and some background on haiku and haiga (haiku art). These are professionally printed in the USA on substantial paper and saddle-stitched.

NEW! 2025 calendars: Featuring original haiku and Asian-inspired collages of peaceful landscapes and animals, my mini-calendars are $12 each. Special thanks to those who agreed to serve as my focus group, helping me decide which pieces to leave out and which to put on the cover.

New cards coming: Birthdays, sympathy, get well, holiday and everyday—I have ten new card designs coming off the press soon. Check for them around Sept. 25 in the card section of the Makino Studios site!

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

Henderson Haiku Awards: This year I was honored to serve as one of the two judges for the Haiku Society of America’s flagship haiku contest. Fellow haiku poet P.H. Fischer and I pored over more than 1200 poems to find our favorites. Check out the winning poems and our commentary.

Seabeck Haiku Getaway: Sponsored by Haiku Northwest, this fun and inspiring gathering takes place in Seabeck, Washington October 24-27. I will be there and can highly recommend this annual event for beginning and experienced haiku points alike. P.H. Fischer and I co-edited the conference anthology for last year’s getaway, sparking memories of a great long weekend of marinating in haiku.

Made in Humboldt Holiday Fair: I’ll have Makino Studios wares, including 2025 calendars, notecard sets and books at Pierson’s Garden Shop in Eureka, CA November 5-December 24.

Arcata Holiday Craft Market: Mark your calendars: my only in-person event of the whole year will take place Saturday and Sunday, December 14-15 at the Arcata Community Center in Arcata, CA. This festive event raises scholarship funds for low-income youth to participate in the City of Arcata’s recreation programs.

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The haiku “egret wings” was first published in Wales Haiku Journal.

“November rain” was first published in Frogpond, the journal of the Haiku Society of America

"The Three Sisters" by Yuri Makino, 1971 (age 4).