Change offers an opportunity to heal.

Part of The Comfort House Project: Stay as long as you like

This linocut reduction print features a safe space under renovation for Matthew. This room is offering a variety of configurations to represent the way we adopt new coping mechanisms when our existing ones are insufficient.

I met Matthew at my local coffee shop for our conversation and we had interacted a couple of times professionally already. It became the longest comfort conversation, extending naturally into a 5-hour hangout. 

We talked about relatable stories and how they can provide a roadmap, or just validation when you're feeling lost. He recommended me at least 6 different books. At the time of our conversation, her comforting strategies were in flux, they had established ones and were in the process of breaking some down and rebuilding new ones. His ability to comfort herself is the only true consistency and the ultimate goal. I have in my notes "you can build a different room. I believe you." and I don't remember exactly what that means, but it seems right.

In the space I created for Matthew, a blue sky is showing through skylights and a big window but the interior is dim and soft. Matthew sits and reads with a pillow on their lap and around him, the room is full of books, art, and a couple of plants. A tall bookshelf in the foreground seems to overlap with a wall-mounted shelf and a painting, both existing at once. Similarly, an armchair overlaps with the ottoman that Matthew has her feet up on.

I wanted to include a detail but I actually forgot! I meant to include an open cupboard door, or table drawer to represent a metaphor Matthew shared with me about queerness that I loved. They said that straightness is a closed door, and queerness is an open door to any degree. You can be a little queer (door cracked open) or super queer (door off its hinges) and the line is blurry.