I enjoy participating in this local and annual call for art at Make.Shift

2024 - Join us on Friday, May 3rd from 5pm-9pm as we celebrate the opening of “Haiku", the seventh annual collaboration between Make.Shift and 4th, 5th and 6th grade students at SamishWoods Montessori.

Each year, students create watercolor paintings based on a theme and artists in the
Bellingham community and beyond create response pieces in a variety of mediums. Each diptych created in
this collaborative manner tells the story of a visual dialogue between a student and an adult artist, with the
student taking the lead and providing the inspiration for the adult. This format challenges the notion that adults
are always the teachers, the leaders, and the sources of inspiration. Students really enjoy seeing the way their
paintings are interpreted and relish the chance to take the lead in the creation process.

This year’s theme is “haiku” and students each wrote a haiku and created a painting to visually represent it. For
cultural context, Mayumi Paluh visited the classroom to share with students about the history and significance
of Haiku in Japan, and about growing up in a Japanese town famous for haiku.

My Student's Name: Shylo

Shylo's Haiku and Art:

Haiku

Rain

The blossom tree sways 

as the sweet wind blows softly 

and the petals fall off.

My submit: 

title: pink petal in the rain

size: 4x6

medium: photograph

instagram

bio: For quite sometime I thought of myself as a closet creative. To me, that meant I wasn’t officially an artist.  As of late, I am out of the closet creatively. I feel like an artist each and every day! I am captivated by the image stories around me. This has me taking way too many photographs! Self taught, utilizing a simple point and shoot camera, I work intuitively. My image capturing style is described as organic, up close, and authentic. They say that my images are narrative. I like that! 

artist statement: In the past i have submitted collage art to this group show, but my first thought after reading Shylo's beautiful Haiku was this photograph. taken in 2016.

please donate this photograph to the artist and family. 

Karen Hanrahan

Make.Shift Art Space is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit DIY venue dedicated to providing a space for all ages art and
music in Bellingham. The 8,000-square-foot space includes 21 studios, an award-winning gallery, a live music
performance space and a low-power radio station KZAX 94.9. We are an all-ages space dedicated to a policy
of no booze, no drugs, no jerks.