Her father was a dentist there, but also knew how to build houses and furniture, a skill he taught Carter as a girl.
[2] In 1976, Carter and her husband purchased a vacant building that had been Murray & Son Funeral Home at 10th and O Streets NW in Washington D.C.
[2] Carter worked as an abstract painter for many years, though her process grew to include watercolor, collage, and performance art.
Her pivot to performance art came after a time of experimentation with her canvases- draping them on the wall, stitching and padding them, or cutting them into strips.
One performance, on January 8, 1984, at the Baltimore Museum of Art, Carter used music composed by Lawrence Moss, who was director of composition at the University of Maryland.