A Brush with Wolves

Back Cover Bio 

Tracy Ane Brooks  spent her childhood exploring the wilderness with her beloved Alaskan Malamutes, their companionship igniting her passion for animals and the natural world. These formative years also sparked her artistic journey, as she began drawing and painting animals, inspired by their beauty and spirit. Storytelling runs in Tracy’s blood. She is a distant relative of James Fenimore Cooper, America’s first great novelist and author of The Last of the Mohicans.

"Reviewed By Jefto Pierre for Readers' Favorite

A Brush with Wolves follows Tracy Ane Brooks’ life as an artist and animal advocate,

shaped by her long relationship with wolves and her work in co-founding Mission: Wolf in Colorado. The book begins with her childhood love of animals and early drawings,

then moves into the moment a single image of a wolf sparks a deeper path that leads

her to living and working alongside captive wolves. Brooks talks about how looking

after wolves, especially the ones that can’t go back to the wild, affects her everyday

life and inspires her writing. Along the way, she explains how her art develops from

pencil sketches to color and mixed media and how creativity becomes a way to

process grief, responsibility, and connection. The story unfolds through real

experiences, reflection, and deep emotional learning. Her experiences reveal how

learning to listen to animals can reshape the way a person lives, creates, and

understands purpose.

Tracy Ane Brooks’ A Brush with Wolves blends memoir, creative reflection, and nature

writing, but it feels more like someone talking honestly about their life than teaching a

lesson. Brooks writes in a thoughtful, unhurried way, often circling back to the same

ideas of listening, patience, and respect as she grows into them. The setting moves

between her inner creative life and the very real work of running a wolf sanctuary,

which keeps the book practical even when ideas turn philosophical. The wolves come

across as real creatures with their own limits, not just symbols, which makes the

message hit harder. The idea of the “heartist” ties the book together, linking art, care,

and responsibility. This nature memoir shares life lessons through personal stories.

Artists, animal lovers, and anyone curious about living creatively will connect with it."

Back Cover Blurb by Joey Chase

I am not an artist in the traditional sense, yet art has always surrounded me. As a child, my mother worked as an art and antique dealer, and I was fortunate to travel with her across the world in pursuit of hidden treasures. Those journeys gave me the chance to absorb the perspectives of artists both ancient and contemporary, to glimpse their stories, and to live, in a sense, within the atmosphere of art throughout my life

     Georgia O’Keeffe was, and continues to be, an especially prominent figure in the ethos of Santa Fe, New Mexico, the place where my mother made a significant transition in the early 1990s with all things art and life. When O’Keeffe died in 1986, many said her passing marked the end of an era in American art. I grasp that perspective of her legacy in a more profound way now. Known for her desert landscapes, flower paintings, and abstract forms, she offered a deeper expression of the Southwest: the essence of its mystery, emotion, and imagination. One of her words that has always stayed with me is, “To create one’s own world takes courage.” That sentiment, in my view, is a hallmark of Tracy Brooks, both as an artist and as a person. Like O’Keeffe, but distinctly her own, Tracy peels away the outer layers and leads you into a place that words and pictures alone cannot reach. She has carved out her own world, a beautiful amalgamation of everything I love and appreciate most about Mission Wolf.

     One of my favorite rituals when visiting  Mission Wolf, is to walk down to the Visitor Center and take in Tracy’s work, both past and present. Each visit felt like going into a time capsule. Her art preserves the essence and perspective of moments I remember vividly, in a way that makes them timeless. There’s another artist quoted that, to me, perfectly captures the spirit of Tracy’s work, and it’s the words of William Faulkner “The aim of every artist to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later,  when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life”. 

     Tracy’s evolution as both a person and an artist, both technically and spiritually, has been a profound and memorable experience to witness. Reading this book has been a blessing to me, not only as a devoted admirer of her work but also as a friend, for it reveals the history and process behind that evolution. It is the story of how she has carved her own world, and for those who have experienced Mission Wolf, it is also the perfect expression of the deeper side of ours. -Joey Chase, Producer & Host, Chasing Coffee Series,  Now streaming on Amazon Prime, networks and airlines both domestic and international.