Art Credit: Marie Dashkova, Photographer
INCANTATION
The bones are mine
and the cookie cutters
are mine
and ripe smell of the compost
is mine,
and the dress curling at my ankles is mine.
The tattoo of the shark,
and the elephant static
and electric whistles of the radio
echoing up, up though the house
are mine,
mine,
mine.
And I am the house, and the chair rails,
and the sunlight gathering its knickers,
and I am father and tall wife.
And the poles that gather the dead are mine,
their sleepy knuckles knocking
are my own, own, own,
and oh, the crone in the attic is also mine
and the hairs on her chinny, chin, chin are mine,
and the small dark at the bottom of the stairs
is mine,
and the voice singing
love on the radio is mine,
is mine,
is mine.
And the synaptic rush is mine,
and the street scuttle
is mine,
and the hoary frost on the windows,
and the brusque wind,
and the sharp wrap of the teacher’s ruler
are mine,
mine,
mine.
And I am the cord around yr neck,
and the smell of powder in the air.
The death crushes are all mine
and the teeth that grow where teeth should not
are mine,
and the firearms and broken wheels
are mine,
and umbrellas turned up like sores,
are mine
And the eye back nails are mine,
and the bowl is mine,
and the spear is mine,
and the light beyond the shutter ribs is mine,
mine,
mine.
And this is my bag,
and these papers are mine,
and there is nothing that I won’t love
and that is mine, mine, mine.
About the author:
Stephen Scott Whitaker is a member of National Book Critics Circle, and managing editor of The Broadkill Review. His poetry, fiction, and essays have appeared in dozens of publications including Oxford Poetry, Anderbo, Grub Street, and others. Whitaker’s collection and chapbooks include: All My Rowdy Friends, The Black Narrows, the award winning Field Recordings, and The Barleyhouse Letters. He lives on the Eastern Shore of Virginia with his family.
In the artist’s words:
“My name is Marie Dashkova, I am 25, I was born in Moscow, Russia and now I live here. I started to be interested in photography at the age of 12, when I was studying photoshop to create avatars and images for sites, so I decided to make selfies using old Sony videocamera, that had photo options. I was inspired a lot, it became my hobby, now I could use not only images from internet and photos by different artists, but create something by myself.
Soon my friends started to ask me how I am doing this, my schoolmates sometimes were using my pics without having idea, that it is me and I am the author. I created a team with two friends of mine in 2007 – we started to do noncommercial photoshoots, it was a beginning of the long way. All of them are still in this industry, very successful and well known.
I started from the very beginning in 2015, having my own equipment, putting more attention to settings, to composition and post production. The industry and tastes of society have changed a lot since 2006, the amount of the content increased, now it is essential to be well known via social media, because otherwise you will be unnoticed and nobody will see your works.
I am self-taught, but there are artists who gave me knowledge and experience, and to whom I will be always grateful to – Andrey Rossalev, Nastasya Parshina and Dmitry Rogozkin. Also I am following the art of Margarita Kareva, she has a lot of online broadcasts with very useful information. There is a lot of things around you that can inspire to create, many topics in the ancient art, renaissance, myths and fairytales. Beauty is everywhere around us and inside us.
The main thing in photography – to know how to find the best light, be careful to the background, to find contact with people and have a quick eye. You need to catch the moment because it can never repeat again. Self-criticism is the best way to improve and to not stop doing it.