Artists are either celibate or gay.” This negative, picked up
from a mother or teacher and unarticulated by the young
artist, can constitute grounds for a powerful block.
Similarly, a young male artist may have the personal
negative “Male artists are either gay or impotent.” This
notion, picked up from a teacher or from reading too much
about Fitzgerald and Hemingway, may again create a block.
Who wants to be sexually dysfunctional?
A gay artist may have yet anther spin on the ball: “Only
heterosexual art is really acceptable, so why make my art if I
have to either disguise it or come out of the closet whether I
want to or not?”
Stripped to their essence, our multiple negative beliefs
reveal a central negative belief: we must trade one good,
beloved dream for another. In other words, if being an artist
seems too good to be true to you, you will devise a price tag
for it that strikes you as unpayable. Hence, you remain
blocked.
Most blocked creatives carry unacknowledged either/or
reasoning that stands between them and their work. To
become unblocked we must recognize our either/or
thinking. “I can either be romantically happy or an artist.” “I
can either be financially successful or an artist.” It is
possible, quite possible, to be both an artist and romantically
fulfilled. It is quite possible to be an artist and financially
successful.
I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on