Sally Brown's affinity and talent for drawing and painting began in her youth, but her career took a different artistic direction as a young adult. After attending Northwestern University and graduating from California Institute for the Arts where she earned a BFA, Sally pursued a career in acting. One of the films in which she appeared was named "one of the ten worst films of 1985" by LA Weekly.

After six years in Los Angeles, she decided to shift gears and go back to her roots. In 1993 she moved back to the family farm in O’Fallon, Illinois, where she and her husband, artist Thomas Joseph, built a farmhouse of their own, which they dubbed Hunkey Dorey Farm. It is in her studio at Hunkey Dorey Farm that she creates her illustrations and art, with her dogs, Queenie and Otis, and cat, Pete, at her side.

In addition to creating original children's art and lithographs that have been sold in galleries (The Caitlin Gallery in St. Louis and Every Picture Tells a Story in Los Angeles), Sally has illustrated books. She created whimsical line drawings to illustrate two non-fiction books by Janine Adams, How to Say It to Your Dog and How to Say It to Your Cat (Prentice Hall Press, 2003). In addition, she did the technical illustrations for Rabbits for Dummies (Wiley, 2002) by Audrey Pavia, using pencil to create beautifully realized, instructional drawings. She has also done technical drawings for a pair of instructional audio CD's on the Pilates Evolution label and for the Cecchetti Council, a national organization dedicated to the method of ballet training established by Cav. Enrico Cecchetti.

Sally is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. She is available for book illustration (children's story books, technical illustrations, and line drawings for adult or children's books), as well as editorial illustration for magazines.