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.

Joy, art and healing

“first rain” is 11 x 14, made of paper, acrylic paint, and adhesive on paper. It appears in my 2022 calendar. © Annette Makino 2021.

It’s always a bit awkward having an event online. It’s not just that someone invariably forgets to mute; it’s also just plain weird to have a conversation with people you can only see in their little Zoom boxes.

flossing only
my front teeth
Zoom meeting

But this deep into the pandemic, Zooming has become more routine—and it does allow for some interesting opportunities we wouldn’t otherwise have.

A couple of weeks ago, I was part of an online panel with four other artists and writers on the theme of joy, art and healing. The rich and wide-ranging conversation centered on the experience of being an artist in this particular time.

Right now our world is dealing with climate change, a pandemic, and assaults on democracy, to name just a few threats. We explored whether it’s frivolous or self-indulgent to spend time making art when our world is so broken. 

Is it the highest and best use of our time to hole up in our studios? Should we instead devote ourselves to political organizing or marching in the streets?

A couple of the panelists shared ways they have harnessed their art for good causes. For instance, letterpress artist Jenn Graves donated sales of a print reading “love is a verb” to support young people as they age out of foster care.

More broadly, we discussed how making art is one way of mending the world. As artist Lisa Occhipinti put it, “Art heals us and enables us to give joy.” 

Author Lori Snyder said, “At its best, art is a bridge to all of our humanity.” She noted how creations that feel unique to us can have universal meaning for other people. 

I shared that my younger self thought that the best way to create social change was to work directly on issues, preferably on a global scale. But I’ve since come to believe that we artists can create more profound change at an individual level, when we’re in our truth and sharing our authentic selves. 

I keep this quote by Clarissa Pinkola Estés on my computer 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.”

I called both of my senators yesterday morning and I regularly donate to political and environmental groups. But I believe the part of the world I can best mend is the part I can touch with my art. 

Someday I hope to meet my fellow panelists out of their Zoom boxes, in 3-D! In the mean time, I’m grateful to them for affirming that, despite my occasional bouts of guilt and doubt, art can be a path to joy and healing for both the artist and the viewer. 

art studio
a full day’s work
under my nails

P.S. This panel was part of “Joy, Art & Healing,” a series of seven conversation organized by Lori Snyder and the Writers Happiness Movement in celebration of Lori’s new book, The Circus at the End of the Sea. You can watch the whole discussion here.

An earlier version of “first rain” was first published in Windfall: 2013 Seabeck Haiku Getaway Anthology

“flossing only” was first published in Paper Mountains: 2020 Seabeck Haiku Getaway Anthology

“art studio” was first published in The Heron’s Nest, Volume XXII, Number 2, June 2021

Single cards, notecard sets, signed prints, calendars and books are all available on this site.

Makino Studios News

New cards: I’ve created eight new and updated cards for birthdays, sympathy, support and every day! I also offer notecards sets for the holidays or every day.

2022 mini-calendar: My new calendars of art and haiku are available on this site and at select stores in Humboldt County, California. They feature 12 colorful Asian-inspired collages with my original haiku, which you can see at the top of my collage gallery. At $12 each, these make great holiday gifts. 

Water and Stone: My book of art and haiku, Water and Stone, makes a lovely present! It includes 50 watercolor paintings with my original poems, plus 15 haibun (short prose pieces combined with haiku). Cost is $24.99. You can find it online here, on Amazon and in select local Humboldt stores. 

Made in Humboldt fair: You’ll be able to find my calendars, prints and boxed notecards at the “Made in Humboldt” event at Pierson Garden Shop in Eureka, CA from Tuesday, Nov. 9 through Friday, Dec. 24. This will be the only fair where you can find my work this season. 

Seabeck Haiku Getaway: I will be presenting a slide show of my art and haiku (haiga) plus a hands-on haiga workshop at the Seabeck Haiku Getaway taking place in Seabeck, WA Oct. 27-31. (Haiku poets, there are still a few spots left!)

Traveling: In related news, I will be traveling and unable to fill orders Oct. 26-Nov. 4, so please get any Makino Studios orders in by Monday.

The eye of the beholder

The Nativity Façade of the Basílica de la Sagrada Família in Barcelona, Spain.

Once upon a time, long, long ago—the summer before the pandemic, to be precise—my family and I spent a couple of weeks traveling around Spain. In Barcelona we visited the Basílica de la Sagrada Família, designed by Antoni Gaudí starting in 1882. Many of its millions of annual visitors find it stunningly beautiful. 

cobblestoned street
church bells ring
across the centuries

Unfortunately, its charms were mostly lost on me. The lumpy Nativity Façade, supposedly representing images from nature, made me think of a nasty skin rash. The cold and angular Passion Façade, meant to evoke Christ’s suffering, reminded me of the ugly Brutalist architecture I saw in the Soviet Union back in the 80s and 90s. 

At least I’m not the only one to shudder at the sight. George Orwell called it "one of the most hideous buildings in the world.” 

A view of the Alhambra in Granada, Spain.

I found plenty of other architecture to love in Spain, especially the Alhambra, the elegant Islamic palace and fortress in Granada.

where stone turns to lace Alhambra

The experience underscored for me that beauty is ultimately subjective. It means that as an artist, I need to accept that my creations won’t connect with everyone. It also means that I’m not the best judge of my own art, at least in terms of how it appeals to others.

So for the last couple years, I’ve been relying on the wisdom of crowds for big decisions about marketing my work. 

For my book, this spring I polled a focus group of some 20 friends and relations to help me decide which of my watercolor paintings to include and which to axe. I especially needed help choosing which piece would be most compelling on the cover (without the haiku). And I’ve relied on this same process to finalize choices for my calendars of art and haiku.

It’s fascinating to compile everyone’s responses. For each image that someone thinks should go on the cover, someone else votes to leave it out entirely. 

focus group
the conclusions
fuzzy

“flowering plum” is 11 x 14, made of paper, acrylic paint, and adhesive on paper. It appears in the 2022 calendar. © Annette Makino 2021.

Still, some patterns emerge, even if they’re not what I expected. A collage that I would have completely left off the 2022 calendar, featuring a bee in plum blossoms, was a finalist for the cover. The other finalist, a fox in the woods, was not one I had even considered for the cover.

With votes almost evenly split between those two potential cover images, I posed the question on Facebook and Instagram. Responses there skewed toward the fox. I also felt the fox image was more appropriate to the fall and winter, when people are buying calendars. 

But some people said they loved the brightness and optimism of the honeybee piece, especially after the year we’ve had. In the end, I went with the fox, but lightened and brightened the colors to make it more cheerful and welcoming. 

I’m really hoping that my respondents and I got it right, because 700 copies of the new 2022 calendar have just arrived in my studio! I’m very happy with how it turned out and I’m sure it’s a stronger publication thanks to the input I received. 

I hope you’ll find that this collection of landscapes, flowers and animals evokes neither hideous rashes nor Socialist monuments, just joyful celebration of life on this beautiful earth. May this calendar see us through a brighter 2022.

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Makino Studios News

NEW! 2022 mini-calendar: My new calendars of art and haiku are now available on this site and are coming soon to select stores in Humboldt County, California. They feature 12 colorful Asian-inspired collages with my original haiku, which you can see at the top of my collage gallery. These make great holiday gifts. $12 plus tax and shipping.

Joy, Art & Healing: I’m speaking on this fascinating topic this coming Sunday, Oct. 3, from 3 to 4 p.m. Pacific as part of an online panel with four fellow creatives. This is part of a free, 7-conversation series in celebration of a fantasy novel by Lori Snyder, The Circus at the End of the Sea. Register at www.writershappiness.com/JAH2021.

Water and Stone: I’ve just received the third shipment of my book of art and haiku! Water and Stone includes 50 watercolor paintings with my original poems, plus 15 haibun (short prose pieces combined with haiku). It is softbound, 8x10, full color, and 124 pages. Cost is $24.99 plus tax and shipping, You can find it online here, on Amazon and in select local Humboldt stores. Ooh, another gift idea!

New cards coming soon: I’ve got a number of new and updated greeting cards in the works; I’m just figuring out the words for some of the images. Stay tuned!

Made in Humboldt fair: You’ll be able to find my calendars, prints and boxed notecards at the “Made in Humboldt” event at Pierson Garden Shop in Eureka, CA from Tuesday, Nov. 9 through Friday, Dec. 24. This will be the only fair where you can find my work this season.

The worth of this day

“how to measure” is 5x7, made with a sand dollar, a Japanese stamp, hand-painted Japanese washi papers and other found papers on illustration board. © Annette Makino 2021

I’m delighted to share that, for the second year in a row, I’m one of three finalists for Best Local Artist in the North Coast Journals’s Best of Humboldt contest! The others are mural artists Duane Flatmo and Blake Reagan. Anyone can vote, once a day through June. I hope you will take a moment to support me and all your favorite local people and places.

As any working artist can tell you, there are many easier and more lucrative ways to make a living. Vincent van Gogh, now one of the world’s most famous artists, only survived due to financial support from his brother.

Though they may not have a brother like Theo, most of the artists I know rely on additional sources of income like teaching art, a day job, grants or a partner with good benefits. And the most financially successful artists aren’t necessarily the best at making art; they’re just really skilled at self-promotion and the business side of art. Look no further than the balloon rabbit sculpture by Jeff Koons that sold for $91 million a couple years ago.

Unlike Koons’ balloon animals, my creative work brings in a fraction of what I earned in my old professional life. But the freedom and quality of life I enjoy are priceless. 

how to measure
the worth of this day
sand dollar moon

And whether it’s a painting, a poem, or a song, there is a special satisfaction in creating something meaningful that no one else could have made.

art studio
a full day’s work
under my nails

Although it doesn’t clearly show on a balance sheet, knowing that my work touches others only multiplies the rewards. After ten years of running Makino Studios, I’m still quietly amazed to receive checks from stores in the mail, because it means that perfect strangers are willing to pay for my art. Deepest thanks to my customers and fans for your ongoing support.

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“how to measure” haiga published in Modern Haiku, Issue 52.2, Summer 2021

“art studio” haiku published in The Heron’s Nest, Volume XXII, Number 2, June 2021

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“first warm breeze” is 5x7, made with a Japanese stamp, hand-painted Japanese washi papers and twine on illustration board. © Annette Makino 2021

Makino Studios News

Best Local Artist: I’m a finalist for Best Local Artist in the North Coast Journal’s 2021 Best of Humboldt contest! Anyone can vote, every day in June, and I’d love your support.

New artwork: Four of my collage pieces are featured in the Poetry Gallery section of the latest issue of Modern Haiku, including the two shown here. You can view all of them and many others in the Gallery section.

“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 this Saturday and Sunday, June 12-13, and is free via Zoom. Anyone can register. Our 50-minute workshop is Sunday at noon Pacific time. 

Water and Stone: Ten Years of Art and Haiku: My book is almost ready and I’m hoping to publish shortly! It features fifty watercolor haiga along with fifteen new haibun (autobiographical prose pieces with haiku). This softbound book will be 8x10, full color, 124 pages, on sale at Amazon or select independent bookstores for $24.99.

North Country Fair: This annual fair on the Arcata Plaza is scheduled to take place Sept. 18-19 this year, if COVID-19 safety permits. Makino Studios will be there!

Free shipping on cards and prints: Use code FREESHIP35 to get free first-class shipping on cards, prints, or other items on US orders of $35 or more.

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.”

Big news on Haiku Poetry Day

“swirls of confetti” is 8 x 10, made of Japanese washi papers and other papers, an airmail envelope, vintage Japanese postage stamps, pen, sumi ink, acrylic paint, and adhesive on illustration board. © Annette Makino 2021

Happy International Haiku Poetry Day! I’ve got some exciting haiku news to share.

First, I am planning to publish my first full-length book! A selection of my best art and haiku of the past ten years, this book will feature fifty of my watercolor haiga (paintings combined with haiku). Sprinkled throughout the pages will be fifteen haibun—a Japanese literary form in which autobiographical prose is combined with haiku. 

With the working title of Water and Stone, this will be a full-color 8x10 softcover book. It will be available on Amazon and the Makino Studios site early this summer.

Secondly, if you heard whooping from my house, it’s because the Haiku Foundation announced today that a haiku I wrote has won a Touchstone Award for best individual poem of 2020! 

There were 1302 poems from 31 countries, mostly nominated by haiku editors, and I am beyond thrilled that my haiku has been honored in this prestigious contest. The Haiku Foundation site explains, “The Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems recognize excellence and innovation in English-language haiku and senryu published in juried public venues during each calendar year.” 

Below is the winning poem, which I wrote at the Klamath River last summer. This poem also won first place in the Porad Haiku Awards last fall.

long before language the S of the river

For a fascinating look at the range of English-language today, see the contest shortlist. My deepest thanks to the panel of judges.

Meanwhile, I’m getting my second Pfizer shot on Sunday, which will mean all five of us in my household are fully vaccinated. Whew! Plus, the cherry trees around my house have put on a fabulous show and are starting send their blossoms afloat. There is much to celebrate!

swirls of confetti
from the cherry trees
festival day

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Makino Studios News

Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 9! I’ve got cards for all the moms in your life. And graduation cards too!

Collage landscape notecards: For Makino Studios’ 10th anniversary, I’ve produced a brand-new notecard set featuring four of my collage landscapes. The cost is $15 for a set of eight cards and kraft envelopes. Mother’s Day gift idea!

Matted prints: You can now find eight small signed and double-matted prints here, mostly of landscapes.

2021 fairs and events: North Coast Open Studios, which is usually held in late May/early June, will not take place this spring but there is a chance it will happen in the fall. The North Country Fair on the Arcata Plaza is tentatively scheduled to take place Sept. 18-19 this year, if Covid-19 safety permits. 

Thanks: I really appreciate all the messages of congratulations on my last post, “Makino Studios turns 10 today!” You can read past posts online on my blog.

Makino Studios turns 10!

“moth at the window” is 8 x 10, made of paper, acrylic paint, and adhesive on illustration board. It appears in my 2021 calendar. It is available as a birthday card reading, “happy birthday—here’s to many more trips around the sun.” © Annette Makino 2020

Makino Studios celebrates its 10th anniversary today! Exactly a decade ago, I took a leap of faith and launched makinostudios.com, the website for my brand-new art business. 

Though I grew up in an artsy family, I never expected to become a working artist. I graduated from Stanford in the 1980s—the Reagan years—with a degree in international relations. In this era of the materialistic yuppie, many of my classmates went on to earn MBAs en route to lucrative positions in corporate America. 

moth at the window
the things we think
will make us happy

Taking a more idealistic path, I ended up working for a global nonprofit. Though lacking many of the perks of, say, investment banking, this career came with its own benefits: I had a fancy title and a six-figure salary. Assignments took me to places like China, Russia, Kenya, Thailand, Paris, Istanbul. I worked with smart, committed people on a worthy mission: supporting independent media around the world. 

It was a role that served me well for a long time. But after twenty years in that career, it was time for a change. I craved work that was more creative and personally meaningful. I came to feel that I would rather make a significant impact on an intimate personal level than a marginal impact on a grand global level. Not incidentally, my financial calculations showed that I didn’t need to work for anyone else again.

The philosopher William James has expressed my feelings perfectly: “I am done with great things and big plans, great institutions and big successes. I am for those tiny, invisible loving human forces that work from individual to individual, creeping through the crannies of the world like so many rootlets, or like the capillary oozing of water, yet which, if given time, will rend the hardest monuments of human pride.”

This past decade of running an art business has come with its share of struggles, false starts and teeth-grinding anxiety. I’ve had to learn accounting while kicking and screaming the whole way. Most recently, COVID-19 has taken a significant bite out of my sales.

But living this creative life is also incredibly rewarding. I get to spend unstructured days with my family and hike wild places with my dog. Then I turn those experiences into art—paintings, collages and haiku that only I could create. Work that flows from my authentic self. I may not be a Master of the Universe, but I can’t imagine a richer life.

all that I am
still unfolding
cherry tree in autumn

Ten years ago . . . with furry muse Misha at my first solo art opening in October 2011 in Eureka, California.

As Makino Studios celebrates its tenth birthday, I want to thank some key people: My husband Paul, for his unfailing support, help with counting cards at stores, and deliveries. My daughter Maya, for her invaluable editorial and artistic input. My son Gabriel, who helps package cards and fill orders. My sisters Yoshi and Yuri, for their keen-eyed artistic feedback. My mother Erika, for her lifelong encouragement of my creativity.

Special thanks to the skill and professionalism of the team at Bug Press, the small but mighty local Arcata printer that makes my print products possible. And last but certainly not least, thanks to my customers, store buyers, friends and fans for your ongoing support and enthusiasm. Makino Studios would not exist without you. 

I bow to you all.

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“moth at the window” haiku published in Bundled Wildflowers, Haiku Society of America 2020 Members’ Anthology, Haiku Society of America, 2020

“all that I am” haiku published in Modern Haiku, Issue 52.1, Winter-Spring 2021

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Makino Studios News

10th anniversary sale: This is the biggest sale I’ve ever run: take 25% off everything in the shop on US orders of $20 or more with promo code 10YEARS. Good for four days only, till 11:59 p.m. this Sunday, March 21. Includes sale items but not original art. One code per order.

NEW - collage landscape notecards: For Makino Studios’ 10th anniversary, I’ve produced a brand-new notecard set featuring four of my collage landscapes. Cost is $15 for a set of eight cards and kraft envelopes. This makes a nice Mother’s Day gift!

NEW - gallery of collage haiga: I’ve posted 14 of my collage haiga (art with haiku) on the gallery page of my website. Most of these original pieces are available for sale; please inquire if interested. (The 25% off sale does not apply to original art.)

A Prayer for Japan: Ten years ago, just after the Great East Japan Earthquake, I created a sumi ink painting of flying cranes with a prayer for healing. The Eureka Times-Standard ran this in-depth story on the piece and the birth of my business.