“lord above, deliver me from yet another girls-girl-unhinged-poetry-writing-photography-aesthetic blog, but fuck it, let’s ball and do it anyways.” – hildegaard von bingen, probably

hospital vespers has taken a while to gestate into what it currently is. initially started as strictly a photography portfolio, it now will exist as a place to house personal writing, poetry, photography, reviews, scans, playlists. think of those edgy person blogs we all had back in the 2000’s (im old gandalf).

hospital vespers takes its name from the weakerthans song of the same name off the absolute banger of an album ‘reconstruction site’, 2003. as an alternative canadian studying literature, i found this album at a very pivotal age and the work within changed much about my own personal style and writing. it captures so perfectly, what i have begun to refer to as ‘canadian gothic’, the same style i center so much of my own work on – this dark unease that comes along with the canadian lived experience of small towns, big trucks, forest service roads, reservations, and the freezing climate we all know too well through our frost bitten hands clutched around hockey sticks and tainted by parkas over cheap halloween costumes.

so, about me – i’m marina. i’m a canadian born artist living in british columbia. i have my BA in english with a minor in fine art. i’m a classically trained musician and began my personal journey with photography and writing from a very early age with yearbook squad, ruined film, borrowed video cameras, and crappy short stories and poems about unicorns.

i’m a published poet and writer. for many years i ran a semi-successful comedy blog. i’m a hopeless dabbler. i’ve had a radio show, i’ve got a podcast, i’ve been an event host and planner. i’ve sold vintage clothing and traded jewelry i would make in order to attend music festivals.

i’ve lived a weird life on the fringes and at many intersections. i’ve travelled around british columbia in a hippie van, i’ve attended hundreds of concerts, i’ve taken photographs for terrifying metal bands, and i spent years living in a collapsing victorian era mansion punk house.

my work is published in various forms both physical and digital and i’ve won a few awards.

currently, i’m most interested in personal writing and analog photography.

i like to explore themes of grief, intergenerational trauma, faith, redemption, grief, and love.