[7] After graduation in 1973, Bartlett set up a studio with Anthony Pryor and Augustine Dall'Ava at 108 Gertrude Street in the inner Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy.

[13] The exhibition had been selected by Patrick McCaughey and curated under the directorship of Kiffy Rubbo, both of whom have launched the careers of young Australian artists.

The Harkness Fellowship allowed Bartlett to undertake a Master of Fine Arts (Hons) at Columbia University in New York.

[17] Bartlett cites David Smith, a well-known abstract expressionist, as an source of inspiration when starting out as a young sculptor.

Victor and Loti Smorgan, who were philanthropists and patron of the arts,[19][20] paid for the shipping of Bartlett's 17 sculptures back to Australia.

[22][21] Upon Returning to Melbourne, Bartlett established a studio in a former clothing factory in Collingwood to work independently as a sculptor.

[28] Canberra's Parliament House Program acquired two of Bartlett's painted steel sculptures that were made in New York, Two Points of View (1985) and Lessons in Gravity (1994).