They Rewrote Themselves Legendary by Ronnie K. Stephens

This illustrated collection speaks to the dance between mental health and art on every page, from bipolar disorder to divorce, body dysmorphia to shifting definitions of fatherhood. Throughout, Stephens has accessed his consciousness because Lee is simultaneously the best friend and the most talented artist he has ever encountered.

Both Desarae Lee and Ronnie K. Stephens draw on art as a form of catharsis. Both have struggled with anxiety and mood disorders. For them, art is a place of healing or, at the very least, a place of respite. Stephens found the same solace in Lee's illustrations, and she found something similar in Stephens' words. And so they became friends who spoke in ekphrastics, who somehow mastered a form of collective meditation that spanned thousands of miles, who spent years in different cities without ever growing apart.