New cards and calendars galore

Happy October! This harvest season I’m excited to share a release of ten new card designs for birthdays, condolences, holidays and more. You can browse all 70-plus single cards, as well as boxed notecard sets, in the card section.

I am also now shipping my 2025 mini-calendar of art and haiku. The Eureka Times-Standard just ran this fun feature called A calendar tradition on the origins of my haiku calendar, going back to a childhood art project with my two sisters. (Journalist Heather Shelton was inspired by my last blog post/e-newsletter about this history.)

Shipping is free for orders of $35 and up; just enter promo code FREESHIP35 at checkout.

tilted axis
we slide
into fall

Sale

SALE! 2025 mini-calendar of art and haiku - Japanese-inspired collage

Sale Price: $6.00 Original Price: $12.00

ALMOST SOLD OUT

Featuring peaceful landscapes 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 washi papers from Asia as well as found papers that she hand-paints and tears.

This mini-calendar measures 5-1/2” wide by 7” tall closed (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 2025.

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funny frog card - you’re so cute and cool but I like you anyway! (464)

$5.00

SUPPLIES LIMITED!

you’re so cute and cool . . . but I like you anyway!

A small green frog rests on a moss-covered stone in this gently teasing card for birthdays or any time. The original collage uses bits of a music scores, map text, an insurance letters, and Japanese washi papers, plus acrylic paint, pen, crayon and glue.

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get well card of love and healing - beach landscape collage (460

$5.00

sending love and healing thoughts

This image evokes the healing power of the ocean with its ceaseless waves, fresh sea breezes, waving beachgrass and soaring gulls. The original image was created with paper, paint, charcoal and glue.

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funny playful cat birthday card - tuxedo cat catching autumn leaves (456)

$5.00

have a wild and crazy birthday!

A black and white cat tries to catch golden falling leaves in this cute and funny birthday card. Great for someone who may prefer to celebrate their special day with a quiet walk with a friend instead of closing down the bar. The original collage was made with paper, paint, pen and glue.

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sea turtle birthday card - may you live long and well - tropical ocean collage (455)

$5.00

happy birthday—may you live long and well

A sea turtle swims through a tropical sea in this colorful and inviting birthday card image. The original collage for this design was made with paper, acrylic paint, fern prints, crayon, colored pencil and glue.

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river and ocean friendship card - so grateful to share this world with you (461)

$5.00

so grateful to share this world with you

A river flows around richly textured rocks into the endless ocean in this rugged but beautiful watercolor landscape. Based on Moonstone Beach in Trinidad, California, this sparkling card conveys a sense of peace along with the quiet power in nature. The original art was painted with Japanese watercolors and sumi ink on paper.

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non-traditional sympathy card - ocean wave collage with haiku (462

$5.00

the shape of a life . . .

one sparking wave
returns to the sea

With an original haiku by Annette Makino, this card evokes a Zen sense of our fundamental oneness. It makes a meaningful, nontraditional sympathy card or a philosophical everyday card. The original collage was made with found papers, acrylic paint and glue.

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beautiful egret birthday card - wishing you a wonder-full birthday (463)

$5.00

wishing you a wonder-full birthday

A Great Egret soars over sunset-colored water in this lovely image, an example of the wonders we wish for someone’s special day. The original collage was made with Japanese washi papers, acrylic paint, paint and glue.

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Makino Studios News

The Made in Humboldt Fair at Pierson Garden Shop runs Nov. 5 through Dec. 24. I will have books, prints, calendars, and notecard sets there.

The Arcata Holiday Craft Market takes place Dec. 14-15 at the Arcata Community Center. Look for the Makino Studios booth on the lefthand side of the main room.

I'm looking forward to the Seabeck Haiku Getaway Oct. 24-27 in Seabeck, Washington. Highly recommended for new and experienced haiku poets alike!

Makino Studios orders will not be shipped while I’m traveling Oct. 22-30. Avoid the wait by ordering now!

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.