What we've survived

“bright green needles” is 8x10 and is available as a greeting card. © Annette Makino 2021

Well, it feels like we are finally turning the corner on the COVID-19 pandemic. My family is fully vaccinated, along with 40% of Americans, and I feel an expanding sense of relief. 

My husband, son and I took advantage of our newfound freedom by driving to San Francisco last week. I have been craving artistic inspiration, so we hit two museums and two galleries in three days. We also visited the Japanese Tea Garden, the new Salesforce Park, Chinatown, North Beach and the scruffy, artsy SoMA neighborhood, walking eight to ten miles every day. 

San Francisco
steep streets spilling
into the bay

It was rejuvenating to leave home for the first non-essential trip in fourteen months, and to experience the energy of urban life. Outside many restaurants, pleasant outdoor booths line the streets in place of parked cars. Some eateries offer customers QR codes to snap with their phones instead of touching old-fashioned paper menus.

city maze
falling in love with
the GPS man

But we were shocked to see how hard the city has been hit by the pandemic. Whole blocks of Chinatown are mostly shuttered and many restaurants have gone under. Even big national chains in prime spots have closed, like the giant Uniqlo and Gap stores near Union Square. The tourists are slowly starting to return, but it could take a long time for downtown to recover. 

Back home, we are not out of the woods. Though Humboldt County fared well earlier in the pandemic, now with the spread of the more contagious B.1.1.7 variant, we have the worst COVID-19 case rates of all 58 California counties. The deaths and lingering side effects will haunt us for a long time, as well as the lost livelihoods and failed dreams of this brutal past year.

With all this in mind, I created the above collage haiga (art plus haiku). I used hand-painted and torn Japanese papers, sumi ink, prints made from ferns and redwood sprigs, and vintage Japanese letters from the 1920s. Though our scars may not always be visible, we have each come through a lot to get here. This  piece honors that struggle and the process of growth, and is meant to evoke a sense of hope and healing after trauma. 

bright green needles
on the fire-scarred redwood—
what we’ve each survived

Here’s to survival and new growth!

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“kingfisher” is 8x5. This collage of a female Belted Kingfisher was commissioned as the cover for the excellent new Kingfisher haiku journal. Check it out! © Annette Makino 2021

Makino Studios News

“The ultimate affirmation” - The Eureka Times-Standard ran a lovely feature on my Touchstone Award for haiku, including my process of writing poems and creating collages.

“Word and Image: Exploring Modern Haiga” - I will present this session on haiga, or art combined with haiku, together with Linda Papanicolaou, Editor of HaigaOnline, at the Haiku Society of America’s annual conference. This year’s event runs Saturday and Sunday, June 12-13, and is free via Zoom. Anyone can register. From the program:

Annette Makino will first share a brief slide show of some of her watercolor haiga over the past ten years. Her presentation will draw from the first full-length book of her art, called Water and Stone, with publication in Summer 2021. Linda Papanicolaou will then explain approaches to linking and shifting between the words and image in haiga, with examples. For the bulk of the session, participants will try their hands at writing haiku to accompany several provided images. There will be time to share the results of this foray into creating haiga. 

Water and Stone - I am close to finishing my book manuscript! This will feature my fifty favorite watercolor haiga of the past ten years, along with fifteen new haibun (autobiographical prose pieces with haiku). I’m hoping to have it ready in June or July.

Cards - My current card designs, including the new “bright green needles” design above, are available here.

2021 fairs and events - Northcoast Open Studios, which is usually held in late May and early June, will not take place this spring, but may happen in the fall. The North Country Fair on the Arcata Plaza is scheduled to take place Sept. 18-19 this year, if COVID-19 safety permits. 

Thanks - I really appreciate all the kind responses to my last post, “Big news on Haiku Poetry Day.”

Sneak preview of the new collage collection

“fog becoming redwoods” is 8 x 10, made of paper, acrylic paint, and adhesive on illustration board. © Annette Makino 2020.

First of all, I want to thank everyone who responded to my last post (Big Changes in the Studio), where I shared my new artistic direction creating Japanese-inspired collages. I was genuinely uncertain whether this big shift in style and technique would appeal to my longtime fans and customers. 

But based on your enthusiastic responses, I have gone ahead and designed a line of fifteen new greeting cards based on my collages. These new cards should be back from the printer on Monday. To sneak a peek at the new collection, see this page of all my Makino Studios card designs. I’m excited to share my new designs for the holidays, birthdays, sympathy and more.

I’m also very happy about my new 2021 calendar of art and haiku. This is my eighth year of producing these—and my favorite yet. Arriving next week, these mini-calendars feature a dozen of my new collages along with original haiku.

I’m not able to do any in-person holiday fairs this year, and some of my retailers are seeing reduced sales during this pandemic. Consequently, I have printed 100 fewer calendars than usual. So order soon to be sure to get enough for yourself and for holiday gifts!

My collages, using discarded materials such as old letters and canceled checks as well as hand-painted washi papers, may be a fitting medium for this strange, disjointed time. In adapting to the pandemic, we are all having to gather bits and pieces from our old lives, then transform and rearrange them in unexpected ways. 

Please let me know your thoughts on the new collection, and enjoy! 

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“what remains” is 8 x 10, made of paper, acrylic paint, and adhesive on illustration board. © Annette Makino 2020. The haiku was originally published in With Cherries On Top, Press Here (2012).

Makino Studios News

Seabeck Haiku Getaway: I will be giving a reading of my haiku and presenting my new collage haiga (art with haiku) at this annual gathering, which is being held on Zoom this year. This free event takes place Oct. 31-Nov. 1. Registration is full but you can sign up for the Seabeck waiting list; the organizers hope to make room for more participants.

Made in Humboldt fair: You can find my calendars, prints and boxed notecards at the “Made in Humboldt” event at Pierson Garden Shop in Eureka, CA from Tuesday, Nov. 10 through Tuesday, Dec. 24. This will be the only fair where you can find my work this season, as the annual holiday fairs at the Arcata Community Center and Redwood Acres are canceled. My cards and calendars are also available in select stores.

Turn, turn, turn

"mouth of the river" is 11x14, painted with Japanese watercolors and sumi ink on paper. Based on a view of Moonstone Beach in Trinidad, CA, it is one of the new pieces in my 2019 calendar. You can see the piece in process below. A greeting card version reads, "infinite thanks." © Annette Makino 2018

Over the past couple of weeks, our family has completely shifted over to school mode. We now have a senior in high school, a senior in college, and a senior in the Over Sixty program at Humboldt State. Instead of lazy mornings, we dash out the door with shoes untied and breakfast in hand.

Meanwhile, nighttime temperatures have dropped into the 40s and the first maple trees are already changing color. It’s hard to say goodbye to summer, but there’s no ignoring the evidence: autumn is coming.

tilted axis
        we slide
                into fall

In the seven years that I’ve been running my art business, a seasonal rhythm has emerged there too. There is the joyful madness of the holiday season. This is followed by the January grind of inventory and accounting, a perfect combination of tedium and frustration. 

year-end accounting
the cat coughs up
another hairball

Spring means creating a new collection of designs and experimenting with some new products. Summer is a juicy, expansive time when I relax at the river with my family and go on week-long painting retreats. 

mouth of the river
an ever-changing story
told to the sea

And September is harvest season, when my best of recent work comes together in the form of a mini-calendar of art and haiku. It’s so satisfying to hold in my hand the culmination of the work I’ve done over the past twelve months, and to know it will bring pleasure to hundreds of others through the coming year.

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven…” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)

With experience, now I know that seemingly fallow weeks will alternate with intensely productive periods. I know that once I survive the dreaded year-end accounting, I will get to create again. And that art-wise, the bittersweet end of the summer means the reward of “bringing in the harvest." So let me be the first to wish you a happy fall equinox!

revolving door
that autumn leaf
comes round again

("revolving door" is part of "Passages," a haiku rengay written with Bill Waters and published in Hedgerow #121, Autumn 2017.)

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Makino Studios News

North Country Fair: The North Country Fair takes place in Arcata, California the weekend of Sept. 15-16, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days. This festive event features 170 art and craft booths, local food, three stages of live entertainment and two parades. I’ll have my newest work at the Makino Studios booth on G Street, plus a free raffle for store credit.

Fieldbrook Art & Wine Festival: Makino Studios will have a booth at this lovely event at the Fieldbrook Winery in Fieldbrook, California on Saturday, Sept. 29, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

New paintings and prints: Check out my latest paintings in the Gallery. And see the new signed art prints in the Prints section.

Sneak preview of 2019 calendar: You can see a few images of my mini-calendar of art and haiku online here. Orders will be shipped out the week of Sept. 17.  

The seeds of inspiration

“the stories waiting inside” is 11×14, painted with sumi ink and Japanese watercolors on paper. It is available as a greeting card reading, “in redwood years, you’re still a seedling—happy birthday!” © Annette Makino 2017

People often ask me where I get my inspiration. I tell them that for writing haiku, it could be literally anything I experience. For instance, getting out of jury duty and going from the courthouse to the beach:

sprung
from jury duty
the wind in my hair

But for paintings, 90% of my ideas come from one place: nature. Whether hiking through sand dunes or exploring Arcata’s marsh and bird sanctuary, I find that spending time out in nature is a wellspring of creative ideas.

My family and I are wrapping up a summer of wilderness adventures. Hiking in the King Range along the Lost Coast, we stumbled on a colony of elephant seals, the males bellowing and grappling like sumo wrestlers.

We rented double kayaks and paddled around two islands on Humboldt Bay, slipping past harbor seals, herons and pelicans, and gaining a whole new perspective on our local geography.

In Prairie Creek State Park, we trekked through lush old-growth redwood forest, passing a lovely little waterfall and sword ferns growing taller than my head. It was a nine-mile hike in which we climbed the equivalent of 73 floors. (Undaunted, our 16-year old son Gabriel asked to be dropped off at tennis class on the drive back so he could play for a couple of hours!)

the stories
waiting inside
redwood seedling

“river flow – Klamath” is 11×14, painted with sumi ink and Japanese watercolors on paper. It is available as a greeting card reading, “what a joy to know you—happy birthday!” © Annette Makino 2017

And this past weekend, the smoke from wildfires cleared just in time for us to get in one last, delicious weekend of swimming and sunning on the Klamath River, where we have gone every summer for the past twenty-one years.

river flow
returning us
to ourselves

Many of these experiences have given rise to art. Working from photos taken on my iPhone, I paint the beautiful places we’ve visited, which allows me to experience them all over again.

As for poetic inspiration, although I’m safe from jury duty for another year, there are always events large and small to inspire haiku. Even a mate's choice of bedtime reading!

War and Peace
a hundred pages in
he surrenders

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Makino Studios News

North Country Fair: Celebrate the fall equinox at the 44th annual North Country Fair in Arcata the weekend of Sept. 16-17! This festive event features 170 booths, live entertainment on three stages, and two parades. I’ll have my newest cards and calendars at the Makino Studios booth on G Street near 9th.

2018 calendars: For the fifth year in a row, I’ve designed a mini-calendar of art and haiku. This year’s features landscapes, dogs, cats and flowers. It is now available online and is coming to stores soon. These make great holiday gifts!

New haiga: I’ve posted several new haiga (art that includes haiku) in the Makino Studios online gallery. Many of these appear in the new calendar.

Newest cards: Check out my latest card designs in the MakinoStudios Etsy shop. You can choose any six designs for $19.99 plus tax and shipping

Sociable: I am now on on Instagram as annettemakino. You can also get news, fresh art and haiku on my Makino Studios Facebook page and my Twitter feed.

Connecting: I so appreciate whenever someone takes the time to respond to these posts, and I read and answer every message.

“War and Peace” published in Frogpond, Issue 40.2, Spring-Summer 2017.

The other end of the paintbrush

“summer solstice” is 11×14, painted with sumi ink and Japanese watercolors on paper and digitally edited. An earlier version of the haiku first appeared in Modern Haiku. A birthday card version is available. © Annette Makino 2016

Humboldt County is famous for two things: its magical old-growth redwood forests and perhaps equally magical marijuana. But there is a lesser-known feature that makes this area unique: it has more working artists per capita than any other part of California.

Each year in June, some 150 Humboldt artists open their studio doors to the public as part of North Coast Open Studios. Earlier this month, it was my pleasure to be part of the "Seven in Samoa" group that hosted visitors the first weekend. The following weekend, I got to tour nine studios.

In visiting other artists, I was inspired and moved by much of their art. But it was just as interesting to talk with these working artists and learn about what goes on at the other end of the paintbrush. I discovered we are grappling with some of the same issues.

A common theme of our conversations was the tension between making art that purely expresses our creativity versus making art that we know will sell. For instance, one artist is currently drawn to images of melancholy women, but knows there is a much bigger market for her playful pieces of cats.

Another sells a lot of art postcards with inspiring quotes, but her passion project is a scrapbook of sketches and thoughts about silent meditation retreats, though she knows the market for such a book is very limited.

Annette Makino demonstrates her tools and techniques at the Samoa Women’s Club in Samoa, CA as part of North Coast Open Studios in June 2017.

For my part, I sometimes find myself painting simply because it’s time for a new card catalog. Instead of “What do I really want to express about my core being?,” the “helpful” and persistent voice inside my head asks a much less inspiring question, “What would make for a good birthday card?”

Another common theme of my Open Studios conversations was the competing demands on our time: we need to spend time managing and marketing our business, but that cuts into the time to actually create. And it's hard for me to compartmentalize: when I know I have orders to fill or an event to publicize, I can't get into the open, spacious frame of mind I need to paint.

Finally, an underlying issue that emerged from talking with other artists was, what does success mean to me as a working artist? Is it measured by sales? Reputation? Appreciation from buyers? Personal satisfaction from the joy of creating? While it’s surely some combination of all of these, it’s challenging to find the right balance, especially in a culture that confuses money with worth.

Overall, I came away from Open Studios without clearcut answers, yet comforted to know that I am not alone: even the most successful artists struggle with these dilemmas. It was inspiring to meet so many passionate, committed people who have chosen to walk this sometimes difficult path. We may never get rich from our art (though I'm not opposed to that!), but we are certainly rich in spirit.

summer solstice . . .
the skipping stone
all the way across

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Makino Studios News

Seven in Samoa: The Eureka Times-Standard ran this story about the group of artists that showcased our work together as part of North Coast Open Studios.

Summer vacation: Happy solstice! I’ll be on vacation from this Saturday, June 24 until Sunday, July 2. While I am swimming and painting at the Klamath River (depicted in the above image), my Makino Studios Etsy shop will be closed for the week and I will not be filling store orders.

Westhaven Wild Blackberry Festival: Rabia O’Loren will be selling a selection of my cards and prints at this festival on Sunday, July 30, 10-4 at the Westhaven Volunteer Fire Department.

North Country Fair: Mark your calendar for this two-day festival celebrating the fall equinox, taking place September 16-17 on the Arcata Plaza!

Celebrating Haiku Poetry Day

“the grass on this side” is 11×14, painted with sumi ink and Japanese watercolors on paper and digitally edited. A greeting card version is available reading “love you till the cows come home.” © Annette Makino 2014

Popping up in the middle of National Poetry Month, today is International Haiku Poetry Day. To mark the occasion, here is a smorgasbord of haiku I’ve published this past year. Enjoy!

gentle rain
I remind my mother
to buckle up

tendrils of fog
I follow a thread
back into the dream

understory
no punctuation
in her text message

beach vacation
every night between the sheets
a little more sand

sunlit pond
the cattails
chirping

thin ice
the windshield crack
lengthens

Indian summer
the sky the color
of forever

And for a selection of some of the finest haiku of 2016, see the short list for The Haiku Foundation’s prestigious Touchstone Award.

warmly, Annette Makino

_________

Publication credits:

“gentle rain” - The Heron’s Nest, Issue 19:1, March 2017
“tendrils of fog” - Frogpond, Issue 40:1, Winter 2017
“understory” - Exhaling, Seabeck Haiku Getaway 2015 Anthology
“beach vacation” - Modern Haiku, Issue 47:2, Summer 2016
“sunlit pond” - A Hundred Gourds, Issue 5:3, June 2016
“thin ice” - A Hundred Gourds, Issue 5:3, June 2016
“Indian summer” - Frogpond, Issue 39:3, Autumn 2016

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Makino Studios News

Free shipping for Poetry Month: Since April is National Poetry Month, I am offering free shipping for US orders of $15 or more through the Makino Studios Etsy store. Use code SPRING2017 through April 30.

ukiaHaiku Festival: I will be at the ukiaHaiku Festival in Ukiah, California on Sunday, April 30 at 2 p.m. at the Civic Center in my old hometown of Ukiah, California. Stay tuned for some happy news!

BeeFest 2017: This annual celebration of bees takes place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 13 at the Adorni Center in Eureka, California. A sampling of my cards and prints will be available.

Open Studios: Mark your calendars for North Coast Open Studios! Once again, I will join silk painter Tina Gleave, plus five other women artists, at the Samoa Women’s Club in Samoa for the first weekend. We’ll kick off from 6-9 p.m. on Friday, June 2 and continue from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, June 3-4. We’ll be showing new art, demonstrating our tools and techniques, and offering free refreshments.

Resistance is fertile

“daffodil sunlight” is 11×14, painted with sumi ink and Japanese watercolors on paper and digitally edited. A birthday card and a Mother’s Day card version are available. © Annette Makino 2017

It seems like an eon ago when I last wrote, in the final days of the Obama presidency. I was anxious about putting my political opinions out in this forum, not knowing how many others shared my views about the dark turn our democracy has taken.

I needn't have worried. Aside from four unsubscribes, the response I got was overwhelmingly positive. And nationwide, starting with the Women’s Marches that drew a remarkable 1% of the US population to the streets, the resistance to the Trump agenda is proving to be deep and wide.

So far, this administration is even more dreadful than I feared. As a result, life has entered a new normal. I write, paint and sing with my choir as before, but now, on Tuesdays at noon, over bowls of homemade soup, I join several dozen other local folks at Power Lunch Humboldt to make calls to our representatives. It nourishes my soul to join with other committed citizens to reclaim our democracy, one phone call at a time.

And in this time of daily assaults against reason, compassion and integrity, I have to be careful how much news I consume. The goal is to stay informed without feeling overwhelmed by the daily outrages. Periodic “fasts” from news media, Facebook and Twitter help to maintain that balance. This is a marathon, not a sprint, and we are all having to learn how to stay engaged without burning out.

“spring breeze” is 5×7, painted with sumi ink and Japanese watercolors on paper and digitally edited. A birthday card version is also available. © Annette Makino 2016

Meanwhile, spring is sproinging. Down the lane, my favorite cherry tree is in bloom; in the yard, the daffodils are exploding with color; and this morning at the marsh, the sparrows were singing their hearts out.

sunlit pond
the cattails
chirping

If we are to maintain the energy to resist over the months and years to come, we need to take extra good care of ourselves. For me that means spending time in nature, connecting with friends and family, and finding reasons for gratitude in the everyday. Despite the madness in Washington, DC, I wish you moments of joy in this time of renewal. Happy spring!

warmly, Annette Makino

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Makino Studios News

Free shipping for Poetry Month: Since April is National Poetry Month, and April 17 is International Haiku Poetry Day, I am offering free shipping for US orders of $15 or more through the Makino Studios Etsy store. Use code SPRING2017 through April 30.

Twelve new card designs: A soaring hawk, frisky dog, and redwood trail are among a dozen new and updated greeting card designs just listed in the Makino Studios Etsy store.

Open Studios: Mark your calendars for North Coast Open Studios! Once again, I will join silk painter Tina Gleave, plus five other women artists, at the Samoa Women’s Club for the first weekend. We’ll kick off from 6-9 p.m. on Friday, June 2 and continue from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, June 3-4. We'll be showing new art, demonstrating our tools and techniques, and offering free refreshments.

Connecting: I deeply appreciate the outpouring of positive responses to my last post about our political situation. You can also get news, art and haiku on my Makino Studios Facebook page and my Twitter feed.

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“sunlit pond” was published in A Hundred Gourds, Issue 5:3, June 2016