Gret Sterrett Smith studied painting at Goddard College with James Gahagan, and graduated with a BFA in painting in 1980 from the San Francisco Art Institute, where she studied with Hassel Smith, Franklin Williams, Robert Hudson, and Angela Davis, and was part of the group of artists and poets in Jess and Robert Duncan’s household and Diane di Prima’s circle. She moved to New York in 1993 and has been painting, drawing, and making sculptures ever since.