LA artist Meg Zany is the renegade inspiring with creative courage

The courage to chase your dreams isn’t manifested in a specific type of human being. “Courage has no gender,” and if allowed, its able to blossom in everyone. Its survival only depends on whether your soul accepts it.

Sometimes it can be a certain event or boredom of cowardice that sparks the feeling. Regardless of whatever happened, we are all able to tap into that emotional resource at some point in our lives.

For street artist Meg Zany, it took time to accept the courage she needed to pursue a creative career and, for her, changing the world by empowering other people was worth giving up her cozy 9 to 5.

Like most of us, the LA-based visionary thought the only way to make “hard cash” was by slaving away at a desk in corporate America although her roots stem from a creative foundation.

After eight years of corporate recruiting, she finally said, “fuck it, life is too short,” swam upstream, and decided that it was time to be who she was truly destined to become — a beacon of artistic inspiration for everyone around the world.

With a spray can in hand, a couple of mobile stencils, and some money in her savings,  Zany’s creative career truly began after she took her craft to the streets. It didn’t come easy and Zany has “worked her ass off,” to get to where she is today. Thus far, her work has made it onto the walls of buildings across America and into European galleries across the pond. She told us,

“I dissolved my company and went into it wholeheartedly. The biggest part of this was that I was doing it for me… I wanted to empower people to do what they want. I feel like I’m going to change the world through empowering other people, putting people on blast that are already changing the world, and people that are creating new social norms.”

Zany celebrates a special kind of hero and through her aesthetic, she hopes to encourage everyone to grab America’s major social issues by the balls. Proving it, the renegade creative recently spraypainted the slogan “Courage has no Gender” around the head of Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

The Associate Justice of the US Supreme court is a badass and if you are unaware of Ginsberg’s work she is well-known for the trail she’s blazed for females and the LGBTQ community in America. 

Ginsberg isn’t the only powerful woman Zany has used in her beautification campaign. The “Courage has no Gender” slogan was first inspired by another powerful human, Amelia Earhart.

These icons that have shifted the social norms are important incorporations into Zany’s artistic works not only because they have been an inspiration to her but also because they represent the universal message of courage. Zany explained,

“We need to celebrate these people that are doing these things. It’s not to be taken lightheartedly. People that are out there just killing it should be embraced.”

Beyond paying homage to America’s modern heroes, the LA-based street artist has mantras dedicated to empowerment like “Females with Male Privilege” juxtaposed next to a woman ready for an artistic war. Her character, ready to take on the world, wears combat boots, a gas mask, and a dress.

For most onlookers, it’s easy to figure out why Zany might’ve painted the character. The piece does represent the struggles women face on the daily like the gender wage gap, the disgusting male gaze, and constant objectification.

Additionally, it represents a final embrace of equality and all humans having the same starting point. Zany reflected on the times she was a corporate American, discussed the issue of women not being taken seriously, and ranted about the unfairness of white privilege. She said,

“The percentage of CEOs, female to male, is gross. As women are dipping into the corporate world I hope those numbers start to change soon. It needs to be embraced and women need to be taken seriously. I think that instead of having white privilege people should have the same jumping off point. Hey, we’re all humans doing this human thing.”

As we look to embrace 2019 and all of the issues that have carried over from the previous year the renegade creative looks to tackle an additional problem at hand. Using her art she has paired up with TOMS to end gun violence together with the people of America.

Although Zany is aware of the concrete history behind the Second Amendment, she believes in the need for universal and mental background checks before anyone is able to carry a firearm legally.

For sure she is helping “shake the boundaries” around the Second Amendment along with TOMS and the artists involved.

Thus far, she’s spread the #EndGunViolenceTogether message and has hit up walls in San Antonio, LA, Brussels, and Paris. There’s a long way to go as TOMS plans to have 500+ pieces tagged all around the globe.

It’s obvious that the main goal for Zany is to spread a message of positivity and diversity. For the youth who are looking to take the same path and inspire the world with their creativity, the radical visionary said,

“Do what you love and do it for you. Have no fear when you’re seeking to succeed.”