WHAT IS YOUR ROLE ON EARTH?
INTERVIEW: MARIA MUCHINSKAYA
OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity / work
Maria Muchinskaya: I live in Minsk, Belarus. I was born in 1953 in the Dubina village, Belarus. Have two higher educations: mathematics-programmer and economics.
Currently a pensioner, I study at the school-studio of icon painting “Zavet”. I love loneliness and silence. Many years of living in a hostel taught me not to hear external noise during my philosophizing about the world, people, and the future.
I started writing poetry in September 2019. Member of the literary and artistic association “Run”, International Union of Russian-speaking writers, International Union of Writers of North America, Member of the Eurasian Creative Guild. Poems were published in the “Anthology of Russian Poetry 2020” and “Anthology of Russian Poetry 2021”, collections of the MSRP, in the collections of the publishing house “Four”, St. Petersburg.
Three collections of poems and essays “Vytoki”, “Captured by Life” and “towards fate” were published, co-author and compiler of the book about the small homeland “There is such a Dubina”. Together with our like-minded fellow countrymen, we try to preserve the original culture of our ancestors, to pass on their traditions. We are collecting materials of each clan inhabiting our native village and by the anniversary of the village we plan to publish a handmade book about all the inhabitants of my small homeland, to restore the bell tower, which was located in the local cemetery.
OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?
MM: If I believed in chance, I would say that I came into creativity by chance.
Having finished the eight-year school, I left my native places, visited them only on holidays and weekends. And during one of my visits life brought me to a wonderful person, Tamara Vladimirovna, with whom we eventually became friends.
The warmth of her feelings for the village, its inhabitants, among whom she spent her youth, she decided to capture in the book. It was a great pleasure for me to support her. Of course, at that moment I didn’t even have thoughts that I would write a poem in verse about the masters of the early 20th century.
I consider Yanka Kupala and Maxim Bogdanovich as an example in creativity, close in spirit to my heart.
OCA: What is your main achievement in 2021-2022?
MM: The most important thing is that the Eurasian Creative Guild highly appreciated our book about fellow countrymen.
During the X OEBF Festival in Samarkand in the nomination “Poems” I was awarded the first prize. I am proud of this book, because it gave happiness to so many people, moreover, it describes some facts from the life of heroes that relatives did not even know about.
I am also grateful to be a co-author and one of the compilers of this book, which opened a new milestone in my life. At the fifth international literary contest “Constellation of Spirituality” – 2021, I was awarded with a diploma named after Tatyana Ainova for the best poetic lyrics in the nomination “Books of the Future” 3D, the e-book “Lesu nasustrach” was noted as the best 3D book among authors from the Near Abroad.
OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?
MM: I think that my sincere attitude to what is happening and the reflection of my feelings in poems and essays. With my works, I do not try to impose my point of view, but I strive to cause a desire to think, to ask myself the question: who are you? What is your role on earth? Feel responsible for what is happening, overcome indifference in yourself.
OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?
MM: I have only been a member of the Guild since the middle of 2021. I took part in the “Voices of Friends-2021″ and “Voices of Friends-2022”. Participated in X OEBF Festival in Uzbekistan. My visit to the X Open Eurasia Festival, as well as meetings with representatives of the Guild, their creative potential gave me confidence, inspired, spiritually supported. There is confidence that my works are not in vain, they are read and interested in them.
OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?
MM: With my work, I dream of making the world at least a little kinder, brighter, more honest. If at least one person, after reading my poems, thinks, overestimates their values, becomes at least a little kinder, this will be the best gift for me. It is a great joy when my friends say that they need to think after reading my poem. I understand that dark shades in life cannot be completely replaced with light ones, but I do not lose hope that it is possible to make them lighter and smaller in volume.
OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?
MM: Most importantly, be honest in your work to yourself and your conscience. Remember that the word heals and hurts. Creativity should heal, sow light, help to distinguish bad from good. And never be shy to learn, to accept criticism with gratitude. Criticism is a very important teacher of any creative person. Never stop and believe that the best is yet to come.