Her primary focus in school was visual arts, yet she also began to become involved in the Baltimore experimental music scene.
Although disillusioned by the time she graduated in 1994, Colburn nevertheless decided to stay in Baltimore and further immerse herself in the city’s artistic community.
By scratching, tinting, and splicing the film itself, Colburn made her first filmic pieces through her manipulation of appropriated imagery.
"[6] After ten years of living in Baltimore, Colburn moved to Amsterdam in 2000 after being offered a two-year residency at the Rijksakademie.
Once finishing up her residency, Colburn spent another three years in the Netherlands making films until returning to the United States in 2005.
[4] Once settling between Long Island City, New York and Amsterdam, NL, Colburn began work on films that dealt more closely with American history and its relationship to the country’s foreign and domestic policies.
As far as the effects of returning to her native country after spending time in Europe, Colburn believes her work has gotten increasingly concerned with political issues facing the world today.
[8] Colburn’s style of collage fuses pop culture and political imagery with an aesthetic that is simultaneously fantastical, painterly, and punk rock.