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Found You Magazine is an independent print publication showcasing inspired, unconventional work by emerging and established writers and artists. To support our work, visit foundyoumag.com.
Robyn Travis is an artist, writer, and librarian based in so called Vancouver. They are drawn to stories of beauty, belonging, and the quiet ways queer life insists on joy, often turning everyday moments into something luminous. Before we begin the interview, Robyn shares a brief excerpt from their story, Dog Park, featured in Issue 4. Please enjoy.
Robyn:At the dog park, no one asks the questions I'm used to answering. My haircut, my clothes, the way I move through the world. None of it requires translation. I am simply this person with this dog. There's a woman with a shaved head who always wears the same hoodie.
Robyn:She throws a tennis ball perfectly. There's a couple who move in orbit. An old man talks to every dog like they're his nephew. No one blinks at anyone else. Bodies arrive as they are.
Robyn:And then there's the person I notice every day. They arrive late jogging a little apologetic. Their dog is a disaster. Ears too big, body shaped like a comma, Heart outside their rib cage. The leash is always tangled.
Robyn:The dog park hums when they arrive.
Kolton:Your work was, it, was performed on stage, which is where I heard it first, at an event. And I was curious to know your how your participation in the event came about.
Robyn:Sure thing. A moment of misplaced but not unwelcome bravery, I suppose. Yeah, I started writing about the dog park when I first got back to the city last summer, and it was kind of one of the first places that I felt a sense of home, and that's important. So when I saw the opportunity to kind of share some of the beauty that I found around me, yeah, I jumped on it. It was the first time I've ever performed one of my pieces.
Robyn:Yeah. I went in totally blind, having not been to the space, not having been to the queer stories before. And, having actually no one really with me as well, which kind of, I think, goes well with the piece too.
Kolton:Totally. Woah, that is very brave of you.
Robyn:Thank you.
Kolton:So do you mind describing this piece that you made for Issue 4?
Robyn:Yeah, sure. Yeah. It came from a place of loneliness and isolation and, I guess an abandonment that maybe most people kind of experience throughout their life. And in my isolation, you find moments and places and people that give you that sense or feeling of nostalgia or home that maybe we're always seeking. And definitely at the dog park was just the first place when I got back to the city that felt just that glimmer of safety and comfort.
Robyn:And it was amongst strangers and creatures who don't know each other. And within that, there was just an ordinary connection. We all have that one thing in common, dogs. So there's already that preconception of maybe compassion or empathy or at least maybe caring for something other than yourself. And just from the get go with understanding that or feeling that, I wanted to write about it.
Robyn:I'd have to say, like, I came to the city with pretty much the clothes on my back, no friends or family, to really support or find community or be a part of community. So, that's kind of what I've been on the hunt for. You can find it in unexpected places like the dog park, and that's actually where I met my first friend in the city, who I'll allow to remain anonymous. But from that very first interaction with a human in the dog park, it was eye opening that not all people are scary and that you can find places of safety in unexpected, unusual spaces. And, yeah, took bravery and courage to even start that interaction, that friendship, and from it has snowballed.
Robyn:Even a feelings of community within my small space in the West End near the dog park. Yeah. Found friends, safety, and community.
Kolton:How long have you been here now?
Robyn:I'm actually born and raised in Langley. This has been coming home, I suppose. Yeah, life has taken me pretty much around the world, across the world, and back to BC just last summer.
Kolton:Nice. Welcome back.
Robyn:Thank you.
Kolton:Thinking about your practice in general, zooming out a little bit, What does your process usually look like when you find yourself making something or beginning to work on something?
Robyn:It always just sparks from a moment, a moment that never leaves. I tend to remember most, if not everything, that happens. Kind of a bit of a magical memory in that way. And with that comes great joy and beauty, but also great grief and sadness. And so often my art and my writing stems from a moment of, yeah, great emotional impact either for myself or those or someone around me or even just what I have the opportunity to witness, an impactful moment that I know won't leave me.
Robyn:And so my writing and my art is a way to, well, maybe in part release, share, process, share joy, and share the grief. So, it all stems from, I think, a place of healing and in the hopes to help others and support others either through my words or my work.
Kolton:Do you find that there are themes or particular questions that keep appearing throughout your work?
Robyn:Yeah. I have to say right now it's just finding, yeah, finding joy, beauty in the ordinary, in the unexpected. It is all around us. And I do find that that has been, yeah, kind of leading or speaking to my work quite a bit, often with the juxtaposition, too, of ordinary and extraordinary. Because anything can be extraordinary if you take the time to know it well enough.
Robyn:And, yeah, and I think a lot of my work encourages readers and viewers to take a moment to get out of themselves, to think about something other than themselves, to expand their worldview. And it doesn't have to be complicated or convoluted or peer reviewed even. Witness and make your observations. Yeah. And get out of your head and off your phone a little bit.
Kolton:What do you find is the hardest part about the creative process for you?
Robyn:Sharing it. A 100%. I have a mass, mass, mass amount of anxiety and fear and self doubt completely. Sharing it is an enormous step of bravery. And I encourage others to give it a try, too.
Robyn:The risk is worth the reward. But yeah, sharing it, it I lose sleep. I don't eat. It's often like that. But I think creative individuals probably understand that, maybe also feel it.
Robyn:It's sharing is probably one of the biggest points of vulnerability and openness that you can have. I can't control it anymore. Anyone can read it, and anyone will get a glimpse into my life. And that is scary. But like I said, great risk comes great reward, and I'm in it for well, I'm not in it for, but it so happens to be that it's helping me heal.
Robyn:And if I can help others on their journey as well, then it's worth it.
Kolton:Yeah. I mean, when I heard it on stage, like the the vulnerability was just like palpable in the room, and I think it really resonated with everyone. Yeah. So thank you for being so open to sharing these parts of yourself.
Robyn:Yeah. I was gonna say my pleasure, but I'm not sure we're there yet. I'm trying to, I think, walk through the world like that and invite others to, yeah, take their shades off, put their shoulders down, and inviting them to open their hearts and, you know, kind of leading by example. So it is scary, but, I find that I'm meeting different people. I'm doing different things, scary things that maybe would have only been a dream before.
Robyn:So with the scary vulnerability, you know, dreams are kind of coming true. So, risk reward.
Kolton:What do you hope that people take away from your work? What do you hope that people feel when they encounter your work?
Robyn:I guess everything, Not one specific thing. I guess human more than anything. I hope you feel anything. If it's rage, anger, sadness, hope, beauty, joy, Yeah. Feel it and feel it for yourself.
Robyn:Because reading the words of another is an opportunity to reflect on on yourself and the world around you and your part that you play in it. So, I encourage others to think about where they are on their own journey and maybe what dreams that they might have that are whispering to them the backs of their heads that maybe reading some of my work will encourage them to step forward and yeah share what they've got too.
Kolton:What has been something that's been significant to you as of late?
Robyn:I'd have to say big emotions, big feelings. I've been trying to share. No, not trying. I have been sharing more of my work, art, writing, even volunteer work and more of myself and my time. Big feelings have come with that for myself as well as the people I interact with.
Robyn:So big feelings. And I think a big one that's come up often and probably where I'm in my life is holding big feelings that For example, you can hold tenderness and anger. They're not opposites, but they're more intertwined. For example, something like anger can help you release. It can help you with clarity.
Robyn:And in that, can come like a tenderness and a joy as well. So, it's just not having to be all of one thing or the other. Emotions, feelings are on a spectrum, and we are humans with big, beautiful brains and big, open hearts. And, yeah, it's being able to hold different feelings at the same time, joy and anger, tenderness and rage. And with that, I think, can come a deeper understanding of yourself and the world around you.
Robyn:So, yeah, I'd say it's, mainly I'd say holding tenderness and rage is defining a lot of my work. It makes me kind of passionate about each day and then also soft with it as well. Just last night, I watched what was it? I the oh, I Saw the TV Glow. Is that the title?
Kolton:I think so. Yeah.
Robyn:Yeah. And just a, like, fantastic film. I didn't know what was getting into before watching it. But even in that, too, it was just the characters' journeys. You could tell that they had complicated feelings and within, I'd say, also with their misunderstanding, maybe, or their attempt at awareness of who they are and their place in the world, holding those opposing but intertwined feelings can generate deeper self awareness and clarity.
Robyn:And, yeah, I felt like that movie was a good representation of that as well.
Kolton:Where can people find your work?
Robyn:Right now, I'd say I'm emerging. I do I'm working on a website. I have a backlog of years and years of writing. Really, what's occurred now to help me share it is that my mom's a bit of a hoarder, and so she kept, like, all this collection of things that I've been writing since I could hold a pen, apparently. And I've been carrying it around for the last twenty years, and coming to Vancouver was bittersweet, and I carried literal and figurative baggage with me.
Robyn:But I eventually went through these boxes that she had packaged up and that I'd been carrying around. And so there's like a backlog of decades of writing. So I'm kind of working on going through those and putting on my website, sharing with different queer community focused publications and digital media, and also working on a graphic novel right now. Hoping to submit for this year, and yeah, it's gonna be a queer coming of age story written and painted by me. So hopefully, yeah, have that out by the end of the year.
Robyn:At least some interest in it too. Yeah.
Kolton:Very cool.
Robyn:Thank you.
Kolton:I'm excited to see that.
Robyn:Yeah, yeah. Okay. Working title is Antlers. Yes. And it's I feel like it's a it's an important piece for me.
Robyn:I feel like it I mean, it's beyond therapeutic. I think a story that will resonate and for me will almost help not close that chapter, but help again with, like, my clarity in the past and what has led me to where I am. And really, I have dreams for the future, so it's a part of that too.
Kolton:So cool. Is there anything else that you want to share before we conclude?
Robyn:Just my gratitude for you and what you're doing and like all the queer community organizers and people who are celebrating and giving energy to the arts and yeah just infinite gratitude for the people doing all that hard work. Keep it going. Thank you. Thank you for doing this.
Kolton:Found You Magazine is produced on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil Waututh Nations. Recording and audio engineering by Thomas Hoeller at Terrestrial Sound Studios. Produced by Natalie Dusek. Theme music by Jackson Burzynski. Show art by Post Projects Inc.
Kolton:Found You Magazine is published by me, Kolton Procter. To support our work, visit foundyoumag.com. Thanks for listening.