“Above all, see that I am here.” For Salt Lake City artist Desarae Lee, that line anchors everything. Working primarily in pen and ink, she creates intricate narrative drawings built from obsessive, meditative linework. “The work is small: look closer,” she says. “Accept what is unchangeable—mistakes made with ink cannot be erased—and we’ll remake ourselves to fit these jagged, inevitable spaces.”

Lee’s practice is shaped by trauma and chronic illness, and by a determination to connect. “It is an attempt to connect the hidden places in me to the hidden places in the viewer, to create a bridge over the immense expanse of our differing perceptions, beliefs, and experiences,” she says. “See the beauty in our grotesque, find the light in encroaching darkness, and embrace humor in spite of our pain.”

It makes sense that she would be drawn to an artist equally committed to line and storytelling.

“David Habben is the Utah artist that has most influenced my own career and practice,” Lee says. She first encountered his work in a basement gallery inside a record store on 3rd South in Salt Lake City. “I was entranced with the natural and flowing linework,” she recalls. “It was something I’d been trying to incorporate into my own pieces.”

“Habben’s work is illustrative,” she says. “Even as it developed to incorporate raw brushwork and movement, the work continues to contain figures that tell emotionally powerful stories.”

David Habben, “Way of the Cross”

For Lee, that mattered. “Illustration isn’t always respected in the art world, but seeing someone pull it off so effectively and achieve success in both illustration and fine art makes me feel more validity in my own illustrative practice.”

Years after first encountering his work, Habben and Lee showed work together at Kayo Gallery. “I remember thinking that showing with him meant that I had broken through—I was a real artist!”

By that point, Lee’s own career already included national exhibitions, publications, and numerous awards, including Best of Show and Best Illustrator. She is a published author and illustrator and served as a founding board member of Salt Lake City’s Downtown Artist Collective.

But her trajectory shifted after she was diagnosed with an incurable chronic illness.

Desarae Lee, “Magpie”

“There was a time when I could spend hours in inky meditation brought on by repetitive hand movements,” she says. Now, her illness—“dysautonomic, autoimmune, gastrointestinal, mitochondrial, relentless, exhausting, painful”—dictates when and for how long she can work. “It doesn’t stop me but it does require me to take a different shape both literally—my body cannot sustain a full curling into the work—and figuratively—my body cannot withstand continued travels or stand through an entire artist’s reception.”

“But different does not mean lost,” she says. “My work finds its place inside this new body. I have more to say than I did before and fewer energy molecules to say it with.”

Her process remains deliberate. It begins with pencil. “My subconscious creates, solves, and re-creates better compositional problems.” Then she builds intricate layers of black ink, calculating “how much of the paper will shine through and how much will be hidden behind layers of ink or thread.”

“As someone who is obsessed with line and mark-making, I admire Habben’s ability to use illustrative line in tandem with a myriad of styles and media to push his work outside any pre-conceived boundaries,” she says. “Observing his experimentation inspires me to experiment with different ways of interacting with a piece, including cutting and embroidery.”

Today, Lee keeps her exhibitions closer to home, regularly participating in the Utah Arts Festival and the Kimball Arts Festival, and jurying into group shows at the Springville Museum of Art and Salt Lake Community College.

Still, the invitation remains the same.

“I still invite you to see and embrace that there is darkness… and also light.”

Above all, she is here.

Desarae Lee, “Woven Snake”

The Way of the Cross: A Series by David Habben opens at the BYU Museum of Art, March 27, 2026.

Who Do You Love

During the month of February we ask Utah artists about a specific piece of art or artist, living or not, local or global, that has sparked their curiosity or influenced their work. We run their responses throughout the month.