This chaotic week is making my head spin after traveling 360° from Utah at the end of May to Ohio and back during the past two months.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, Lake Powell in Page, Arizona — © 2018 Louise Levergneux, Lake Powell in Page, Arizona

At my return in Salt Lake City, I promptly communicated with a local artist, I, unfortunately, missed the last time around.

Desarae Lee is a talented artist and illustrator who lives and works in Salt Lake City. Her art has appeared in galleries and art shows across the US and she has won numerous awards for her work including Best of Show, Best Illustrator, and Featured Artist. Desarae a published author and illustrator serves as a founding board member at Salt Lake City’s Downtown Artist Collective, where she can occasionally be found teaching drawing or printmaking.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, Desarae's studio in Salt Lake City, Utah

Desarae works primarily with pen and ink and balances exact meticulous line-work with natural flowing compositions. Over time, her art has developed organically to include watercolor, tea staining, and printmaking.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, dry point by Desarae Lee

Influenced by personal trauma and struggles with depression and anxiety disorders, Desarae naturally creates work that revolves around themes of finding humor in pain, beauty in the grotesque, and light in the darkness.

© 2018 Desarae Lee, Memory, dry point print — © 2018 Desarae Lee, Memory, dry point print

© 2018 Desarae Lee, Meronymy, pen & ink and watercolour — © 2018 Desarae Lee, Meronymy, pen & ink and watercolour

© 2018 Desarae Lee,Octopus, pen and ink — © 2018 Desarae Lee,Octopus, pen and ink

Desarae’s work ranges in the themes she develops but her work inevitably attempts to connect the deep places in herself to the unknown places in a potential viewer, to somehow create a bridge of communication over the immense expanse of our differing perceptions, beliefs, and experiences.

I enjoyed the hour spent talking with Desarae in her studio and I’m looking forward to meeting more and more artists on this fruitful journey. In the next couple of weeks I will be in the area of Houghton Michigan.

Opening one's self to different possibilities does help to open doors. After my visit with Mary Baughman from the Austin Book Arts Center, I received a few emails from interested parties.

© 2017 Louise Levergneux, San Fernando Cathedral, San Antonio, Texas — © 2017 Louise Levergneux, San Fernando Cathedral, San Antonio, Texas

I responded to an email from Beck Whitehead, an advisory member of the Austin Book Arts Center to meet with her and Eleonore Lee, the Program Coordinator of the Southwest School of Art in San Antonio, Texas.

On Monday the 27th of November, after an hour trip to San Antonio, I met with both Beck and Léo (as Eleonore likes to be called) at the Paper-making and Book Arts Lab. At the end of my visit, Léo invited me to come next year and work in the lab using my equipment. Space would be nice—an actual space or studio time!

The Southwest School of Art is known for its visual arts education. It offers a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, and studio art programs for adults, children, and teens. Graduates from the Southwest School of Art’s BFA degree program gain business, critical thinking, and studio skills necessary for careers as working artists and engaged citizens.

© 2017 Louise Levergneux, Southwest School of Art, printmaking lab

© 2017 Louise Levergneux, Southwest School of Art, printmaking lab, one of us Canadians has been there before!

© 2017 Louise Levergneux, Southwest School of Art, paper-making lab

© 2017 Louise Levergneux, Southwest School of Art, papers made by students

Léo received her BFA from The School of Art Institute of Chicago and earned a MA and MFA degree in Printmaking from the University of Iowa. Her areas of specialization include printmaking, book arts (binding, typography, paper-making) and collaboration. Léo has exhibited, both nationally and internationally. Her work is included in numerous publications and permanent collections.

© 2017 Louise Levergneux, Southwest School of Art, Léo demonstrating one of the presses

Beck Whitehead received a BA from Trinity University and a MFA from the University of Texas at San Antonio. She retired after 30 years of teaching at the Southwest School of Art. In addition, Beck taught workshops in paper-making around the US and Canada. She creates paper paintings and one-of-a-kind books.

© 2016 Marvin Pfeiffer, San Antonio Express-News, Beck Whitehead with “Column I,” “Column II,” and “Column III” in her exhibit titled “Beck Whitehead & Pulparazzi,” handmade paper and pulp painting

Thank you, Beck and Léo for showing me around the labs. Another Texan welcome!