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.

•

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.

Celebrating 11 years!

Tomorrow will mark exactly eleven years since I launched this website and in that moment, Makino Studios was born! The website, the business, my art and the world have gone through quite a few changes since then. Deepest thanks to my customers and fans for supporting my work all these years!

To celebrate, I’m offering 20% off everything on my site for four days, through this Sunday at midnight. Use code 11YEARS at checkout. This site is only set up to ship within the US but if you live overseas, shoot me a message and we’ll work it out. Mother's Day and graduation are just around the corner!

As a sweet anniversary gift, my book, Water and Stone, recently got two more lovely reviews. An excerpt from the review in Frogpond, the journal of the Haiku Society of America: “While this book is clearly meant to showcase the haiga, I don’t want to overlook the universal appeal of her haibun, which speak directly to the reader’s heart about such topics as parenthood, being an artist, time passing, beloved pets, family history, and the natural world around us. There is so much to love and appreciate in this book, which I would also highly recommend as the perfect gift for a haiku poet to share with non-haiku-poet family and friends.”

And an excerpt from the Modern Haiku review: “This first full-length collection presents fifty haiga and fifteen autobiographical haibun by a poet whom Stephen Addiss places ‘among the leaders of haiku painting.’ . . . Love, indeed, is what seems to inspire Makino’s haiga, visually rendered in Japanese watercolors and sumi ink in an unpretentious style that illustrates and interprets her charming haiku.”

You can find the book online here, on Amazon and in some local stores.

I’m also excited that Season 2 of Studio Space, a series on Humboldt County artists, will debut on KEET-TV and online on April 7 at 7:30 p.m.! One episode features artist Lori Goodman and me. I will let you know once I hear when it will air. The shows will be available to stream online for free for three weeks, then will be available only to PBS members.

Below is a sampling of my new and updated cards. You can browse the whole collection here, plus find 2022 calendars (now on sale for $8), art prints and a gallery of my work.

Thanks again for inspiring and motivating me to keep creating.

congratulations card with swimming salmon - collage card for grads etc. (430)

$5.00

congratulations—onward and upward!

Brightly colored coho salmon swim upstream through deep blue waters in this Asian-inspired collage. The message sends strength and encouragement to graduates or others reaching a life milestone. The original collage was made with hand-painted Asian papers, leaf prints, musical scores and newsprint.

Add to cart

funny birthday card of honeybees in a hive- watercolor art (424)

$5.00

have a sweet bee-day!

This image of bees at work in the hive, with its gentle puns, makes the perfect card for anyone who appreciates bees, honey, flowers or gardens. The piece was painted with Japanese watercolors and sumi ink.

Add to cart

funny rooster birthday card for kids and adults (432)

$5.00

Hurray for the the day you were born!

By dawn’s early light, a colorful rooster crows to heaven, rejoicing in the day a special someone came into being. A combination of painting and collage, this fun design appeals to kids and adults alike. Send it for birthdays, new babies, or whenever you want to celebrate someone’s existence.

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sympathy card of bare trees and evening sky - watercolor with poem (427)

$5.00

when someone you love
steps off the world
it hangs
askew

In this atmospheric watercolor landscape, bare trees at sunset are reflected in a lake. The image and accompanying poem in this beautiful sympathy card let the recipient know that you understand how the loss of their loved one has upended their world.

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Spread joy and beauty this season

In an era of mass-produced widgets, a unique and meaningful gift is more appreciated than ever. Here are some suggestions for special holiday presents from the Makino Studios shelves. And through this Sunday, take a holiday discount of 10% off anything in the shop* with code JOY10. The elves are standing by to pack your order!

2022 calendar of art and haiku—a mini-calendar with my original haiku and collages to lift the spirit all through the year. Includes info about the artist and about haiku and haiga. These are going fast!

Sale

SALE! 2022 mini-calendar of art and haiku - Japanese-inspired collage

Sale Price: $6.00 Original Price: $12.00

• Please note this is the 2022 calendar, for those who just want to enjoy the art. The 2025 calendar is available here.

Featuring peaceful landscapes, flowers and animals, this wall calendar expresses Zen wisdom as well as quiet wonder and delight in the world.

The Japanese-inspired collages in this calendar include haiku by award-winning poet Annette Makino. She created each of these collages with hand-painted and torn washi papers from Asia as well as found papers.

This mini-calendar measures 5-1/2” wide by 7” tall closed (or 5-1/2” x 14” open), so it will easily fit in a small space. Major US holidays are listed. All twelve designs are shown on the back. 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. Each calendar is packaged in a self-sealing cellophane sleeve.

Many users of past Makino Studios calendars save and hang up each month’s painting after it has passed or give the image to a friend. The new calendar makes a great gift that may continue to bring pleasure well past 2022.

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Greeting cards—holiday, birthday, sympathy, everyday . . . choose from 60-plus designs! Heads up: due to increased printing costs, card prices will rise from $4.50 to $5 each on Jan. 1.

Water and Stone: Ten Years of Art and Haiku—a book of my 50 favorite watercolor haiga (paintings with haiku), plus short personal tales. Softbound, 8x10, 124 pages, full color.

Book of art and haiku: Water and Stone

$25.00

* Honorable Mention, Haiku Society of America Merit Book Awards *

“With the publication of Water and Stone, Annette Makino takes her place among the leaders of haiku painting (haiga).”

—Stephen Addiss, author of The Art of Haiku

This beautiful book by award-winning haiku poet and artist Annette Makino provides a welcome dose of Zen wisdom and humor for our fractured world. Through vibrant paintings and evocative poems, 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.

Spanning a decade of painting and writing, Water and Stone features fifty haiga—artworks combined with haiku—painted with Japanese watercolors and sumi ink. Sprinkled throughout the collection are fifteen 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 our place in the world.

By turns joyful and poignant, this full-color collection of Makino’s paintings and haiku is a treat for lovers of Japanese poetry and art. Reading Water and Stone lifts the spirit while helping to deepen awareness and appreciation of the present moment.

Book is full color, 8x10, 124 pages, softbound.

Praise for Water and Stone - read the book reviews

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Matted prints—a selection of small prints that are signed and double-matted to 8x10 size, packed with a flyer about the art and the artist. Can be customized with any card design.

redwood blessing - small signed and matted print

$18.00

may peace in our hearts spread peace in the world

This image of a redwood forest canopy reminds us that our thoughts and actions radiate out into the world; this is how we create peace in our homes, communities, and the world. This piece captures the magical feeling of standing under the forest canopy, surrounded by towering redwoods that may be over a thousand years old. The original was painted with Japanese watercolors and sumi ink.

This matted print is personally signed by the artist. The 5” x 7” image is double-matted to exterior dimensions of 8" x 10" and can be framed in a standard-sized frame. (A framed example of a different print is shown; frame is not included.)

These are professionally printed on an HP Indigo press that produces offset-quality reproductions. Prints are made using fade-resistant ink on acid-free paper from a supplier that is certified to be 100% carbon-neutral. 

Each print is packaged in a self-sealing cellophane bag with a sturdy backing board and a flyer about the artist and the work. The order is shipped in a sturdy photo mailer.

Add to cart

11x14 prints—choose from 10 professionally printed, fade-resistant designs on heavy stock. Each 11x14 print is stamped with a red name seal and signed by the artist. Supplies very limited.

Original art—paintings in Japanese watercolors and sumi ink, or collages of hand-painted papers, found papers and natural objects, some with haiku. Browse the gallery for possibilities. Starting at $100.

Gift card—can’t decide what to get them? A Makino Studios digital gift card lets them choose exactly what they want, and never expires.

Looking for boxed notecard sets? These have almost completely sold out, though some local Humboldt stores still have a few designs, especially the Made in Humboldt fair at Pierson’s, which runs through Dec. 24. Due to increased printing costs, these will probably be the last of the Makino Studios notecard sets.

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

Happy holidays to you and yours!

warmly, Annette

*The JOY10 10% off holiday discount applies to US retail orders of items in the Makino Studios online shop. No order minimum. Expires Sunday, Dec. 12 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific. One code per order.