Feel the fear and do it anyway.

Whether it’s something big like starting a new business or blog, or small like opening a new sketchbook; there’s a feeling that always seems to creep up in that space of opportunity, a mix of excitement and terror.

The first page of a new sketchbook almost always incites this feeling for me, and over time I began to see it as an opportunity to experiment with my subconscious beliefs.

There's nothing like clean, crisp, untouched pages, ready for your creative vision. I feel the excitement of the creativity waiting to bubble out of me, and the pressure to showcase my ingenuity and what’s within. Of course when you feel that pressure, the creative genius within goes on holiday.

I’m sure many artists don’t carry this same excited anxiety of the first page - but probably of starting a new project. My sketchbook practice didn’t start until I was in fashion school, and each sketchbook carried a collection we were designing, or a semester of collections. The first page felt like an important introduction to the story meant to unfold through the pages ahead, and eventually through your collection. The problem is, when you start, you have no idea what genius will come out in the pages ahead, so I’d often leave it blank. I have 10+ year-old sketchbooks where the first page is still blank.

But I started Syke Studio to break barriers and smash “shoulds”, giving myself and others permission to follow our flow, step fully into our light and show up in this world as our most authentic selves; because what this world needs is more people who are Lit the f*ck up.

I started this journey as a designer, and by way of a winding spiritual journey, I have evolved an artist. My art practice is spiritual. I’ve learned the importance of moving and transmuting energy, and how to use art to do so. When you feel fear, let yourself truly feel it so you may know where it comes from, then transmute it. That may look like dancing it out, walking around the room a few times, or scribbling through a few pages in a sketchbook or notebook.

When I feel that old fear of the first page - which I recognize as my subconscious fear of imperfection - I pick up a pen, put it to the paper, close my eyes and scribble until it flows. Sometimes that’s one page, sometimes that’s 10. I go until anxiety be gone and I can truly flow. The belief that “the first page should display the genius inside” is abolished and replaced with flow, or the genius itself.

Consider this my scribble page - the first entry of my blog - bring home the creative genius & let me tap into my creative intuition.