Art requires creative freedom
A successful career requires careful planning
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Zen Hedonism is a holistic approach to creative career coaching – work habits, goal setting, motivation, problem solving and so on – that evolved from the work I was doing helping writers and other artists plan and develop their careers. Primarily my role was to be a safety net for when things went wrong. I provided mediation, contract negotiation and advocacy services. I dealt with the problems so that writers and other artists could focus on the fun stuff. Part of that was teaching creatives how to avoid pitfalls in the first place. This may have been an attempt to have fewer problems around for me to have to fix. More and more I was teaching artists to manage their finances and their muse and their relationships all at the same time.
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Many of the problems I encountered arose from a conflict between what they wanted to be doing and what they felt that society expected of them. Others struggled with unrealistic expectations regarding how their art would fix other problems in their lives. They believed that if they just got their book published, or their script made or whatever then everything would be okay. Their parent/ex/crush would love them, their financial worries would be over and they’d never have to work their day job ever again. It doesn’t happen like that. Creative freedom requires hard work and focus.
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Zen Hedonism is a way of navigating and balancing the need for creative freedom and sound career planning.
Zen Hedonism is having a plan for creative fun.
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It is also a book, available here, and a soon to be launched consultancy.
About me:
My name is Steven Gannaway and I am an author and an artist who found himself in an advocacy role while at art school. I've exhibited as an artist and published a novel. I've spoken on contract negotiation at international conferences and have fought for many years for the rights of artists.
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I was the Executive Director of the New Zealand Writers Guild for over eight years. I provided advocacy, mediation, contract negotiation for professional screenwriters. I ran workshops and the Scriptwriter Awards NZ. I also fought for and established the NZWG Seed Grants funding initiative.
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Prior to that I was at art school at Massey University in Wellington and President of the student association. I provided advocacy services for students studying art, design, fashion, music, nursing, economics, journalism and more.
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My first novel - Seraphim Blues - was published by Reed Publishing and was optioned and made into the feature film The Most Fun You Can Have Dying.