"Refuse To Despair"

“Refuse To Despair”
by Becky Jo Minsky (aka. Hull)
(copyright 2007)

Where does Inspiration come from?

Someone once wrote… “we receive confirmation from the world around us”. We can find Inspiration wherever we go, whenever we need guidance. However, finding Inspiration is not nearly as important as listening to the message that Inspiration brings to our awareness and the effect it has upon us and the world we live in.

Someone once wrote… “ We must cultivate Hope like precious flowers”. I don’t know who wrote that inspirational sentence, but I am grateful to that person for reminding me of what is important.

Inspiration cultivates Hope. Why bother? Because Hope blooms between the darkness of the long "Dark Night of the Soul" and the "Dawn of a Momentous Day". Hope gives us strength when we need it most to endure and persevere in our endeavours, feeling our way as we go through the long Dark Night of the Soul when it is so hard to find the strength to go on and too easy to believe that we will never see another sunrise. Hope enables us to find the courage to dare to reach out to touch the Dream of a Better Way of Living… even when we know that what we hope for is probably an “Impossible Dream.” Impossible just means it hasn’t been done yet.

The mind can know Fear… Fear of Failure… Fear of Loss… Fear of Betrayal… Fear of Lack… Fear of Pain… Fear of Change. Fear comes to us in many guises. Sometimes it clings to us like a sly parasite, like a living necklace coiled around our necks, slowly strangling us even as it feeds on our life force… weakening our resolve until we no longer have the strength to defy an unkind or unjust fate. Sometimes it ambushes us and overwhelms us like a giant sinister spider… paralysing us with its toxins - until we are unable to move or think quickly enough to save ourselves at a crucial time when what we say, do or think can effectively change the events of our lives and those around us for the better. Sometimes it slowly creeps up on us like a noxious fog, choking us and clouding our judgement until it is difficult to see where we are going… making us vulnerable to hidden pitfalls and stumbling blocks in our Path that we would normally be able to safely avoid in a clear state of mind. Sometimes it suddenly screams in our ears, throwing us into a sheer panic and when we try to escape, blindly fleeing into the darkness, it stalks us with amusement as we stumble around sobbing and shrieking like frightened children fleeing from the bogeyman of nightmares. We cannot Live through Fear, but Fear can Live though us. When we allow Fear to Live through us, that is when we are in Despair. Hope Banishes Fear and empowers us to reach beyond the Dream of What Can Be, to touch What Will Be.

The mind can know Fear, but the heart is Fearless when it is full of Hope. Listen to your heart and Refuse to Despair.

Becky Jo Minsky (aka. Hull)

January 2007

This painting is a visionary surrealistic piece I created in oil on canvas (with a touch of glitter)showing a woman in darkness. She has been dwelling in the dark for so long, her eyes glow and a phosphorescent aura shimmers around her, for she radiates her own inner light now. In her hair she wears a shining heart-shaped ornament next to her right ear. The heart of course, symbolizes love and passion. On her left cheek is a glowing mark of a spiral. The spiral is a symbol of CHANGE and can represent involution (inner change/growth) as well as evolution (outer change/growth). You can see that Grief has marked her for within her own darkness there is a void so immense you can see stars in it. The stars also represent her connection to the Universe of course. The Dark Woman stares wide-eyed and intently at the viewer, even as she reaches for a new Reality, through bubbles/dreams/portals of "What May Be", to point to and touch "What Is and What Will Be". Phosphorescent lightning (the power of Transformation) shoots out of the fingers of her outstretched right hand illuminating the darkness that surrounds her - showing undercurrents of energy/life force (potential) swirling around her throughout the surrounding darkness. Within the bubbles/dreams/portals that the Dark Woman reaches through, there is a composite view of another world in which another woman can be seen. The second woman is in the midst of a clearing in the bush. Strange-looking flowers grow there, ready to be harvested. Through the trees behind the second woman the viewer can see the sun is rising over the mountains in the background and the second woman is backlit in the early morning light with a serene look upon her face. Everything is bathed in light and all is as it "should be" in this Ideal World. At the edge of the bubbles/dreams/portals are brilliantly coloured flowers in bloom. They are growing at the edge of "What Is and Is Not"... between the "Long Dark Night of the Soul" and the "Dawn of a Momentous Day". There is a saying "We must cultivate Hope like precious flowers". These flowers are Hope in full bloom.




As an “emerging/submerged” female artist born in 1956 into a time and place when and where female artists were rarely given the respect, emotional support, formal training, practical financial backing, work opportunities and social recognition they needed to establish themselves as professional community artists, I have had to fight for my inherent right to create practically my whole life against a tremendous amount of social prejudice, ignorance, misguidance, sometimes just plain EVIL and personal misfortunes. Even though I started drawing realistic portraits around the age of 4 or 5, I am mostly self-taught because my family did not understand my need for formal artistic training. Due to personal circumstances, over the years, in order to be true to myself, I have had to define myself as an artist on my own terms.  I have received very little assistance from any individual, art group, arts organisation, or government agency. It is not in my nature to ask for help.  But on the rare occasions when I have done so, as a general rule, those who could have helped me chose not to, and those who wanted to help me, could not. Desire is its own discipline.  All that I have achieved thus far is in spite of every obstacle I have encountered along the Artists' Way and believe me when I say that the opposition I have faced (and still do) has been very consistent and nearly overwhelming at times.

Over the years, I have met many people who have told me what is "impossible" and what I should and should not do, what I can and cannot do while being completely oblivious to what I am truly capable of doing as an artist, as a woman and as a human being. Eventually I realised that quite often, when someone told me "that is impossible"... what they were really saying is "that is impossible for me to do and therefore you shouldn't try to do what I cannot".  This kind of negative feedback is not only painful to the sensitive soul, it is also very toxic and destructive in terms of undermining and/or blocking spontaneous creative inspirations, destabilizing creative potential in general and disrupting the creative process to such an extent that indeed reinforces the impossibility of bringing about any sort of positive CHANGE into the World. It has been my personal experience that long-term exposure to intense negative feedback can eventually result in a state of creative frustration that is so extreme, it can lead the individual creative soul into a state of Despair. Once we give in to despair, all hope is lost and all possibilities to CHANGE the World for the Better disappear. Then our lives are not our own, and we no longer have control over our own personal fate and the fate of the World. Then we are merely little more than "Living Dead" dwelling in darkness while waiting to die and/or to be sacrificed as unwilling victims to the Evils of this World which feed upon the Innocent, the Ignorant and the Unfortunate.

As a Visionary Surrealist artist, I work with symbols and archetypal imagery in a wide range of mediums. I create transcendental artwork that expresses spiritual truths and metaphysical concepts. I am here to say that the mind can know Fear, but the heart is fearless, and "impossible" just means it hasn't been done yet. No matter how bad things get, no matter what happens... if we truly want to CHANGE the World for the BETTER, we must LISTEN to our heart and REFUSE TO DESPAIR. For it is only when we GIVE UP that we are truly BEATEN.

Becky Jo Minsky (aka. Hull)
September 15, 2010