Or ... how I got to this point of my life ... always growing, always changing and always grateful ... Jeanne Balsam

I have been drawing animals since I was 5 years old, and photographing them as soon as I got my first Brownie camera at 11, taking snapshots of dogs and horses, and ducks on the local pond. My best buddy as a child was Dutchess, the pit bull terrier (alleged Boxer) I grew up with, and who so influenced my love of all things bully.

A Fine Arts graduate of Pratt Institute, I also studied the writing and illustrating of children's books postgraduate with Uri Shulevitz at the New School. Following a circuitous route in which I became degreed as an Art Therapist and then a Psychoanalyst with my own practice, I resumed my art career as the Fund Raising Manager and Graphic Artist for the largest animal sheltering system in New Jersey. Over the next 20 years there, I gained a wealth of wonderful experience while working on my artwork at home as well. In early 2006, I took a leap of faith to grow my own business in graphic design and animal art.

Although I have a soft spot for the bull and terrier breeds - I operated, and did all the graphics for, my own APBT rescue, Friends of Terriers, for nearly ten years and am published quarterly in Just Frenchies magazine - I enjoy drawing or photographing any and all types of animals. This has clearly influenced the nature of not just my artwork, but the direction of my story writing as well.