Three illustrations of two beasts, and text which is transcribed below. In the first panel, the two beasts in chains are fighting each other, inflecting wounds done to them to the other. A symbol meaning 'cycle of harm' is featured in the upper left. In the next panel, the two beasts mend the other's original wound. A symbol meaning 'to heal the other/to form connection' is featured on the left. In the final panel, the beast break each other's leashes by cooperating with each other. A symbol for 'cooperation/solidarity' is beneath them.

Break Binds

2022 | Digital [Clip Studio Paint]

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

While there is technically gore here, to me its so stylized that I feel it doesn’t warrant a full blown mature rating.

Transcript:
I could make you hurt like I do.
You could make me hurt like you do.
We could keep at it, feeling false power for a fleeting minute.

Or

We can mend like we ought to/need to
And then we can
break
these
binds.

An assortment of pieces centered around breaking cycles of harm, facilitating healing, forging better tools for conflict resolution, and forming meaningful solidarity. Topics I've been chewing on a lot over the past several months as I keep seeing instances of hurt people hurting other people within some of the communities I lurk.

As unsatisfying in the short term as it might be and as uncomfortable it might be to learn and practice, we aren’t going to survive if we keep eating each other alive over interpersonal conflicts that could be solved in more productive ways, and that is an ideal I also need to make sure I strive for/keep in mind as well.

A sketch of the two beasts fighting each other, along with some stray marks and doodles.

And a couple of drafts of the first panel. For whatever reason I got stuck trying to make these two interlock correctly.

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