Four Eyes Feature: Grey Traynor

No. 10 Four Eyes will be released very soon and in preparation we decided to feature different writers and artists who are apart of this issue. We are starting off with a Portland based writer named Grey Traynor, who wrote a story titled "Welcome Home.”

Beacon: What inspired you to write “Welcome Home?”

Grey: As I was outlining “Welcome Home,” I realized I was writing about the anxiety and fear one can have when they transition further into adulthood. I’m 28, and although I’m not anywhere near buying a house and I have no interest in raising a family, I’m now at a point in my life where so many people I know are experiencing these things, it’s not the exception it once was; it’s the norm. And all of those life experiences come with learning curves and tips and tricks that one can only truly learn by messing them up.

So with all of that I thought it would be interesting to explore a story where this character’s doubts and fears have full control even though she’s seemingly being given an huge life opportunity without strings attached.

Beacon: What do you like to write about?

Grey: I like to write about situations and characters that center around the anxiety and fear of living and, despite how grave that sounds, there can be a lot of humor and love in that, as well as heartbreak. At the end of the day, we're all broken toys who want love but, more often than not, we get in our own way and discard love that's being given to us because being vulnerable is hard and scary and confusing. 

Beacon: Why do you write?

Grey: I write to make sense of the world and to understand feelings I've felt. I don't write about things that have really happened to me, not even fictional retellings, because that feels like an inaccurate farce and as many creatives have pointed out for centuries, fiction is more truthful than nonfiction could ever be. And writing gives me energy like no other thing does.

Beacon: Other than writing, what do you do in your free time?

Grey: In my free time, I'm hard at work on my webcomic Tanya Boney, a collaboration with Rachel Mulder, as well as my up-and-coming punk band Gaybysitter, a collaboration with Jon Ventrella.

Rapid fire questions about Eyes

Beacon: Contacts or Glasses?

Grey: I used to have glasses but my eyes got better? I don't know how that makes sense, but it’s what my optometrist told me.

Beacon: What color are your eyes?

Grey: My eyes are blue!

Beacon: Do you have a crazy story about something that happened to your eyes? 

Grey: Crazy-ish story: I used to think I had x-ray vision as a small child because when you cover one eye you can still see out the other, giving the illusion that you're seeing "through" something. I remember then covering both eyes and when I saw only darkness, I came to the intellectual conclusion that my x-ray vision only worked one eye at a time.

Beacon: What does the saying "Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder" mean to you?

Grey: To me, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" means that there are limitless truths in every second that we will never know because we can only know what's true to us as individuals. And also, to me, I think it's a wonderful statement on perception. Perception is everything. We alone can choose to find the beauty in most things or we can catastrophize; feast or famine, it's up to us.

Beacon: How can people find you online?

Grey: My personal Instagram is @gaytraynor

My webcomic can be found @tanya_boney_official

And my band is @gaybysitter_pdx and our debut show will be at the Kenton Club on October 10th.