Disability Justice and Violence Prevention Resource Hub

Ink Zentangle Mule Deer – Faerie Bear Art

A mule deer is facing left with a small butterfly settled on the deer's tail.  The deer is designed with various zentangles throughout their body and along their ribs, text reads, "I believe you".  There are also some watermarks directing people to Faerie Bear Art on various platforms.
A mule deer is facing left with a small butterfly settled on the deer’s tail. The deer is designed with various zentangles throughout their body and along their ribs, text reads, “I believe you”. There are also some watermarks directing people to Faerie Bear Art on various platforms.

About the Art

I started making this when I attended the Annual National Solving the Campus Sexual Assault & Dating Violence Puzzle Conference (Puzzles for short).  The conference had been partly delayed and the schedule derailed due to an unexpected snow storm along the eastern seaboard and I happened to be one of the few people able to attend both days as planned.  One of the keynote speakers wasn’t able to arrive until the second day and she ended up kicking off the conference then.  I was having a particularly challenging time with my health while attending this conference and was doodling as I listened to the keynote speaker present about solidarity, survivorship, believing and supporting survivors.  

I think about the valuing in believing people and what that means often, especially WHO is believed and who isn’t.  Whose stories are prioritized and who do those stories serve?  For example, what proportion of the stories about people with disabilities actually come from us? And when we do get to share our own stories, how often are we expected to fit within the able-bodied framework of inspiration porn? What happens to the stories that don’t serve dominant frameworks of our value to society or our “quality of life”?


About Faerie Bear Art

Faerie Bear Art is an art adventure by Skye Ashton Kantola (she/they) founded in late 2016. Skye is a fat, white, trans, queer, and intersex, chronically ill autistic person. Skye’s art focuses on trauma healing and uplifting marginalized communities. 10% of all art sales are donated to BreakOUT! Youth, a QTPOC youth lead organization focused on abolition and decriminalization in Louisiana. In some cases, the profits from certain pieces are also split with collaborators.

Ink Zentangle Mule Deer – Faerie Bear Art
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