Though never commercially successful as an animated filmmaker, Pitt's films developed a cult following,[4] especially following Asparagus' pairing with Eraserhead (1977) during the latter's run on the midnight movies circuit.

Outside of filmmaking, Pitt was well-known for her painted graffiti coats, which first debuted alongside Keith Haring's at Patricia Field’s store in 1984.

"[8] Pitt's interest in art was encouraged by her family, and she attended both the University of Alabama and Cranbrook Academy, graduating from the former in 1965[9] with a BFA in painting.

Pitt named artists such as Richard Lindner, David Hockney, and Francis Bacon as inspirations for her work at the time.

[8] After completing her degree at Cranbrook Academy, Pitt decided against pursuing a master's, as she felt that her "time was more valuable just on her own".

While teaching at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Pitt began experimenting with animation using a 16mm film camera and paper cut-outs.

[20] In addition, she created large-scale multimedia shows, including a collaboration with John Cage at Harvard University in 1976 and at the Venice Biennale in 1980.

Here, she became inspired for her next film, Joy Street (1995), by a desire to "re-discover [humanity's] innate relationship to nature, our primal home".

[21] Writer Jennifer Remenchik states that the "protagonist’s journey mirrors Pitt’s own experience with depression from which she found relief by traveling to the rainforests of Central America on a Fulbright Grant.

[23] In 1996, Pitt created a series of animated shorts for Cartoon Network's Big Bag entitled "Troubles the Cat".

Like Joy Street, El Doctor saw Pitt pulling inspiration from Mexican flora and culture for the film's imagery.

For Pinball, Pitt created a cinema collage of hundreds of paintings and set them to music (this time, George Antheil's 1952 revision of Ballet Mécanique) with eccentric editing.

[28] Pitt also created silk-screen T-shirts printed with an original design, sold through WilliWear Productions by Willi Smith in 1984.

Starting in 1998, she taught in the Experimental Animation program at the California Institute of the Arts for nearly twenty years, living in Los Angeles and Taos, New Mexico.