In the room where it happens

Today I’m sharing my process for “Winding River,” one of the collages in the Ten Thousand Gates group show at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka, CA. This landscape is inspired by the Klamath River in Orleans, CA where I go every summer to relax and create.

After painting and embellishing the papers with acrylic paints, I tear and place them on the canvas.

Here’s a closeup of the madrone trees as I play with placement.

The papers I’ve painted are organized with each color in a separate bin. On my laptop is one of the photos I took for reference.

At work in the room where it happens! This collage incorporates vintage Japanese letters, old brush paintings, a letter from Germany, book pages, a receipt from Japan, choir music, an insurance letter, plant prints, charcoal and ink scribbles and washi papers.

“Winding River” is 36” x 24”, made with found papers, Japanese washi papers, acrylic paint, colored pencil, charcoal, ink and matte medium on canvas. © Annette Makino 2025

I also want to say, wow, what an amazing few days it’s been! A case of everything everywhere all at once. My keynote at the ukiaHaiku Festival was very well-received and it was sweet to headline this event celebrating haiku in my old hometown of Ukiah, CA. The art opening for the Ten Thousand Gates group show at the Morris Graves Museum in Eureka, CA beautifully showcased the dynamic and diverse work of twelve artists of Asian descent. And the Ink to Paper reading that I organized—the first in Humboldt County to feature all Asian American poets—found a warm audience. Thank you to everyone who came out to these events!

As if all that weren’t enough, in the same ten-day period one of my haibun (prose with haiku) was featured by the poetry journal Rattle. I also spoke on an hour-long Thursday Night Talk panel on KZZH Access Humboldt about the weekend of local events celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage. And haiku luminary Brad Bennett focussed an entire session of his haiku class on my poems and haiga (art with haiku).

All this is a lot for an introvert! But it was really fun and rewarding, a validation of the art and poetry path I stepped onto fifteen years ago. And . . . I’m taking a much-needed vacation May 20-June 8.

stubbled wheat field
learning to let myself
just rest

Though Makino Studios orders will still be shipped, they may take longer to go out. So I’m offering 15% off everything in the shop through midnight this Sunday, Mother’s Day, with code MOMS15.

Happy Mother’s Day to the moms of all kinds out there, and enjoy these late spring days!

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Makino Studios News

Ten Thousand Gates - A Humboldt Celebration of Asian Artists: This art show at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka, CA features twelve artists of Asian descent: Karla Kaizoji Austin, Cate Be, Jeremy Hara, Ted Hsu, the late Suk Choo Kim, Ali Lee, Thao Le Khac, Amy Leon, Annette Makino, Yoshiko Skelton, Amy Uyeki and Libby Yee. The art ranges from traditional landscapes to contemporary street art. The show runs through June 8.

North Coast Open Studios: I will share my art and process during the second weekend of this fun event that takes place all around Humboldt County. On this 25th anniversary of North Coast Open Studios, I’m joining half a dozen international artists plus local artists at Creekside Arts in Freshwater, CA on Saturday and Sunday, June 14-15 from 10 to 5.

Mother’s Day Sale: Use code MOMS15 at checkout to get 15% off all cards, notecard sets, books, prints and calendars in the shop. Offer expires this Sunday, May 11 at midnight. Excludes original art.

Vacay plans: I will be on vacation May 20 to June 8, and Makino Studios orders will go out slowly while I’m gone. Sorry for the wait!

Cards for graduation, wedding and more: You can browse the card collection for these occasions and others.

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“stubbled wheat field” was published in Mariposa, #50, Spring/Summer 2024

News story on my art journey

I’m excited to share that this week’s North Coast Journal includes an in-depth article about my creative path! My thanks to Louisa Rogers for the lively and well-researched column—it’s a great holiday gift to be featured. Happy solstice and season’s greetings to all!

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Makino’s “Garden rosebush,” a collage of book pages, a letter and envelope from the artist’s grandmother, handmade and Japanese washi papers, painted, torn and glued onto birch wood panel.

ART BEAT

Annette Makino’s Life in Collage

LOUISA ROGERS, NORTH COAST JOURNAL, EUREKA, CA, DECEMBER 21, 2023

Annette Makino has been an artist all her life but it wasn't until 2010 that she became interested in incorporating haiku into her artwork. For her birthday that year, her Arcata friend and fellow artist Amy Uyeki gave her a book of senryu, a poetic form structurally similar to haiku but with more humor and a focus on human nature. The poems were written by Uyeki’s Japanese grandmother and accompanied by Uyeki’s art.

“This lovely book set me on my current path,” says Makino, whose father is also Japanese. She started combining her haiku with simple brush paintings, which evolved to Asian-inspired watercolors and then collages. A year later, after leaving her 20-year career as senior vice president for communications at the Arcata-based nonprofit Internews, she launched Makino Studios, offering collages, watercolors, prints, cards and calendars.

Annette Makino. Photo by Maya Makino

Currently she works mostly with collage using hand-painted and torn Japanese washi papers, which are typically made from the fibers of the mulberry plant. She also uses other papers from different parts of her life—letters, her young nephew’s scribbles, book pages, musical scores and maps. To make sure the pieces don’t fade over time, she uses acrylic paints to color the white paper, then tears it into the shapes she wants and glues it onto paper or wood, a process that typically takes two to three days. According to Makino, a common misconception is that collage doesn't require much skill. “It’s very labor intensive and can involve as much skill as painting,” she says.

Makino’s most productive periods of artwork happen twice every summer, when she and her husband, Paul, a retired Cal Poly Humboldt geography professor, rent a cabin on the Klamath River in Orleans, a place they've visited for 27 years. In that placid location, free from distractions, she can get a lot of work done.

Makino usually writes the haiku first, before the artwork. “The words aren’t meant to illustrate the art,” she says. “You want a bit of distance, so the reader has a new way to think about the theme.” She often starts crafting the poem while hiking in Ma-le'l Dunes or in Trinidad, where she and Paul walk a couple of times a week.

Makino considers herself equal parts artist and writer. Her book Water and Stone: Ten Years of Art and Haiku was awarded Honorable Mention in the Haiku Society of America's Merit Book Awards and her poetry regularly appears in English-language haiku journals, including Modern Haiku, Frogpond and The Heron’s Nest. She has also won awards for her poetry from the Haiku Foundation and the Haiku Society of America.

Annette Makino’s “All that I am” incorporates book pages, a fern print, a vintage Japanese letter and washi paper, as well as asemic, or made-up, writing by her nephew.

Many of Makino’s haiku have to do with transitions. A few years ago, for example, when her two young adult children started the process of leaving home, she wrote about the empty nest, while the loss of her 16-year-old dog inspired many poems last summer. Her 95-year-old mother Erika, a former Humboldt resident and also a writer and artist, lives three hours away in Mendocino County. Makino visits her about once a month and is keenly aware of her mom’s gradual decline. That, and the earthquake last winter which caused a lot of damage to her home, have inspired her poetry and art. “Whatever life brings me,” she says. 

Makino was one of five local artists granted the 2022 Victor Thomas Jacoby award for “artistic vision and creativity,” provided annually by the Humboldt Area Foundation and Wild Rivers Community Foundation. Winners each received $10,000 to support their work. The award freed her from some of the commercial pressures of running a business and creating mostly marketable art that appeals to the public. Instead, she experimented with mixed media, using materials like charcoal, crayon, ink and pencil in her collages, and exploring oils and cold wax.

North Coast Journal, December 21, 2023

Recently, she’s been incorporating more personally meaningful elements into her collages. Because Paul loves maps, she created a collage for him that included a detailed map of Tibet. Another collage she created with whales incorporated a scrap from her daughter’s high school copy of Moby Dick. For “Garden rosebush,” she says, “I included a letter from my Swiss grandmother when I got married.”

Makino’s Japanese-Swiss ancestry has shaped her creativity. The haiku and Japanese paper may be more apparent to viewers but, “The Swiss, too, are surprisingly very playful in their art and writing,” she says, noting she likes to bring that spirit of play into her work.

Makino’s cards, prints and calendars are available at the Made in Humboldt Fair at Pierson Garden Shop through Dec. 24, and in shops around the county year-round. You can see more of her work at makinostudios.com.

Louisa Rogers (she/her) is a writer, painter and paddleboarder who lives in Eureka and Guanajuato, Mexico.

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Makino Studios News

Made in Humboldt fair: With 300 local vendors, the “Made in Humboldt” event at Pierson Garden Shop in Eureka, CA runs through this Sunday, Dec. 24. There you will find my calendars, books, small prints and boxed notecards.

2024 mini-calendars: I am still shipping out orders through the holidays, especially my calendars of art and haiku! They feature 12 colorful Asian-inspired collages with my original haiku. $12 each.

Free shipping: Earn free shipping on orders for $35 or more; just enter promo code FREESHIP35 at checkout.

Thanks for 12 great years!

“the redwood path” is 11x14, made with acrylic paint, washi paper, silver foil and glue on cradled birch panel. It was inspired by a hike that went a little later than expected. © Annette Makino 2022

Gosh, so much has happened lately! In December alone, my husband Paul and I visited the Galapagos and mainland Ecuador, I finally caught Covid, I won a $10,000 Jacoby Award for Humboldt County artists, a violent earthquake damaged our house, and we hosted extended family for the holidays.

January brought a series of intense winter storms, repeatedly knocking out our power and water. We continued earthquake repairs and I tackled my dreaded year-end business accounting. In February we were treated to a very unusual event: several snowfalls right here on the coast! Meanwhile, I’ve been exploring new art techniques, writing and publishing haiku, and reorganizing my studio—while getting pounded by a fresh series of atmospheric rivers. I’m currently in Portland, Oregon, where I visited the serene Portland Japanese Garden and saw an inspiring show of Japanese woodblock prints.

I won’t go into detail on all that here—photos and more detail on most of these events can be found on my Instagram feed and the Makino Studios Facebook page. But this is just to say that although I’ve been bit preoccupied, I haven’t forgotten you, my friends and fans!

This Saturday, March 18, is the 12th anniversary of Makino Studios. What a privilege to have spent the past dozen years as a working artist, sharing my creativity with the world. In thanks for your ongoing support, I am offering 15% off everything in my shop. Use code 12YEARS at checkout through midnight this Sunday, March 19.

Who knows what new twists and turns the coming year will bring—tornadoes? zombies? I only know that I’m grateful to be able to walk the artist’s path.

the redwood path
absorbs our footsteps
moonlit ferns

Paul and I just casually hanging out with a Galápagos penguin, as one does.

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Makino Studios News

12th anniversary sale: Cards, prints, books, calendars—take 15% off everything in the shop except original art, using code 12YEARS at checkout. Offer ends at midnight this Sunday, March 19.

Pizza and Pottery Festival: Mark your calendar for 11-5 on Saturday, May 6, for this lovely small fair with wood-fired pizzas and other goodies plus live music. 135 Sunkist Lane, off Glendale near the Blue Lake Murphy’s Market.

Calendars: My last 2023 mini-calendars of art and haiku are now on sale for $6.99 (from $12). You’ve still got most of the year to enjoy one!

Skipping Stones: It’s always an honor to have a haiku selected for the Red Moon anthology of the best English-language haiku of the year. Here’s one of mine that made it into the 2022 edition:

Covid variant
another wave sucks the sand
from under our feet

(First published in Mariposa and in The Haiku Way to Healing: Illness, Injury and Pain)

A New Resonance 13: A longtime dream has finally come true: I've been chosen as one of the 17 haiku poets to be featured in this landmark series published by Red Moon Press. I will have copies available for sale in June, featuring a wide variety of emerging voices in haiku.

Torn together

Happy Thanksgiving! This week I’m especially grateful for the gift of right livelihood—creative work that nourishes me and my community. Deepest thanks to you, my customers and fans, who make that possible. In gratitude, I’m offering 15% off everything in my Makino Studios shop thru Sunday with code THANKS22 (details below).

Here’s a glimpse at how I created a recent piece. A few years ago, I tore my left rotator cuff, which was followed by a painful case of “frozen shoulder.” After a physical therapy appointment, I took a walk along the Mad River bluffs overlooking the ocean, admiring the windswept trees. That inspired the following poem:

to love this body
just as it is
twisted shore pines

I decided to create a collage with the haiku, and started with a rough sketch. Next I searched through my collection of painted and embellished papers. Earlier I had tried painting a sunset sky for another piece, which didn’t work at all. But that rejected sheet turned out to be perfect for this piece. I also used washi paper, an old letter and some pages from a copy of Moby-Dick.

After much trial and error, I chose the papers I wanted, then tore them into pieces and laid them out, tweaking my composition until it felt right.

I tore and glued on the main pieces, including the black branches of the shore pine. But how to create all those needles? I knew it would drive me insane to collage each one. Eventually I realized I was trying to obey an imaginary rule that using pen and ink in a collage would be “cheating.” Once I let go of that unconscious restriction, I drew in the needles with a fine point pen.

Voilà! The finished haiga (art with haiku), is 11x14, made with acrylic paint, archival ink, paper and glue on cradled birch panel. (The words were added digitally using my custom brush-painted font and do not appear on the original.) © Annette Makino 2022

From uncomfortable beginnings, this mixed media collage emerged as the star of my collection this year. In an informal poll of friends and family, it won the cover spot on my 2023 calendar. (There is also a greeting card version that reads simply, “sending much love.”)

Sending wishes for much love and abundance this Thanksgiving!

“to love this body” was first published in Frogpond, the journal of the Haiku Society of America.

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Makino Studios News

Thanksgiving sale: Use promo code THANKS22 at checkout for 15% off everything in the Makino Studios shop except original art. Good for first-class shipping within the U.S. Only one promo code per order. Sale ends at midnight this Sunday, Nov. 27.

Made in Humboldt fair: The “Made in Humboldt” event at Pierson Garden Shop in Eureka, CA runs through Friday, Dec. 24. This is the only fair where you can buy my calendars, books, prints and boxed notecards this season. There are 250 participating vendors, all local.

Ecuador travel: My husband and I will be in Ecuador and the Galápagos Dec. 3-20! We are visiting our son, who is studying there this semester. Our house sitter will be packaging and mailing orders in my absence, but they may take a little longer to get out the door, so order early!

2023 mini-calendars: My calendars of art and haiku make great holiday gifts! They feature 12 colorful Asian-inspired collages with my original haiku. $12 each.

Water and Stone: My award-winning book of art and haiku includes 50 watercolor paintings with my original poems. Cost is $25. You can find it online here, on Amazon and in select local Humboldt stores. 

Cards: Holiday, birthday, sympathy or everyday… right now there are more than 70 Makino Studios card designs to choose from. I also have five different notecard sets, including two holiday designs.

Art prints: Blake’s Books in McKinleyville and Humboldt’s Hometown Store in Ferndale both carry a selection of my matted art prints, ready for gifting. They are among the local stores that carry my books, calendars, notecards and single cards.

Holiday shipping deadline: The US Postal Service advises that for first-class packages to arrive by Dec. 25, they should be shipped by Saturday, Dec. 17.

How a collage is born

Today I want to take you into my studio and share my process for creating a collage—specifically, the oak tree collage shown below. It’s part of my 2022 calendar of art and haiku, which is 15% off through Sunday.

The most time-intensive part of the process is actually painting the papers—this takes twice as long as all the rest. Here, I’m rolling hand-mixed acrylic paint onto a page from an old book, which is placed on a gel press plate. I always start with white paper and then paint it so that the colors won’t fade over time. On my table you can see clear plastic totes of papers that I’ve painted and embellished, one tote for each color.

I've always loved oak trees, and have drawn, painted, embroidered, quilted or batiked them since I was a kid. Here, I’ve torn the shapes of an oak tree with a boulder behind it, based loosely on some photos I took on a hike in the Kneeland hills of Humboldt County, CA. I prefer the organic look of torn rather than cut edges.

In this photo, you can see some shapes I have torn and laid down to represent leaves and bushes. The papers include some textural pieces made by applying paint to crinkled tin foil and rolling it onto painted deli paper. I also used an old map and some lacy paper from Japan that I painted, both of which suggest foliage.

Here, I’ve glued down the background and am tearing a tiny piece of foliage. I think of my collage process as “tearing things together.”

Almost there! Once I’ve laid out the pieces how I want them, I reverse the whole piece onto a separate sheet of paper. Now I can glue them down in the proper order, so the background pieces go down first. I apply archival glue (PVA) with an old paintbrush.

Ta-da! A few weeks after I made this piece, I lay in the hammock at my mother’s home in Mendocino County and brainstormed haiku that could go with it. The final piece reads:

staying balanced
on a spinning globe—
deep-rooted oak

Regarding the lettering, sometimes I paint each haiku individually using sumi ink and a bamboo brush. In this case, I used a custom font made from my brush-painted letters.

The red stamp in the corner is my name seal, also known as a chop or hanko, reading “Makino.”

I learned some of these collage techniques from a workshop with artist Donna Watson and books by Elizabeth St. Hilaire, and I am discovering new techniques all the time. Please let me know if you have any questions about my process!

"staying balanced" is 8x10, made of painted papers, glue and illustration board. The original is available for purchase. © Annette Makino 2020

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Makino Studios News

Sale on 2022 mini-calendars: My calendars of art and haiku are moving so fast that I ordered 200 more! They are now 15% off on the Makino Studios site, just till midnight this Sunday. Use code CAL15 at checkout. They are also sold at stores in Eureka, Arcata, McKinleyville and Trinidad, CA. The calendars feature 12 colorful Asian-inspired collages with my original haiku. Normally $12 each.

Water and Stone: My book of art and haiku makes a great gift! It includes 50 watercolor paintings with my original poems. Cost is $24.99. You can find it online here, on Amazon and in select local Humboldt stores. 

Cards: Holiday, birthday, sympathy or everyday… right now there are more than 60 Makino Studios card designs, including seven new or updated designs. Please note that due to increased costs, the price for a single card will rise on January 1, from $4.50 to $5.00. 

Made in Humboldt fair: The “Made in Humboldt” event at Pierson Garden Shop in Eureka, CA runs through Friday, Dec. 24. This is the only fair where you can buy my calendars, books, prints and boxed notecards this season. 

Art prints at Blake’s Books: This bookstore in McKinleyville, CA currently has a selection of my framed and unframed art prints, ready for gifting. They are also among the local stores that carry my books, calendars, notecards and single cards.

Holiday shipping deadline: The US Postal Service advises that for first-class packages to arrive by Dec. 25, they should be shipped by this Friday, Dec. 17.