Barbara Carter (Born in 1953) was born in Stuttgart Germany. At the age of 6 her mother took her to the Stuttgart Youth Center, where there were many different art workshops - woodworking, pottery, Batik, weaving and more. All through her life in Stuttgart, she spent her afternoons there once a week or more. In Stuttgart, Barbara attended first the Hoelderlin gymnasium (emphasis on humanities and Latin) and then the Wirtschafts gymnasium and graduated with the international bachelor’s degree (Abitur) in 1972. Upon graduation, she got married to an American Officer who brought her to the United States. Just a year later, she started attending the University of Louisville from where she graduated with a degree in German in 1974 with the intention to teach. Barbara felt the need to help her credits and make a living from Germany that made it possible for her to get her degree in 18 months.
After graduation, her first employment was in a frame shop but once she had done all the framing work, the job was gone as well. Her marriage ended in divorce in 1976, and she got a job as a teller at a local bank. She worked there shortly and in 1978, she began working as a sales representative for Xerox Corporation. At this time, the company began its decline because of the stiff competition from Japanese companies. Barbara met Michael John Carter and decided to get married once again. This allowed her to leave Xerox and went ahead pursue her art projects while at the same time working as a substitute teacher.
