Barbara Forthal-Carruth earned her MFA from the University of California, Irvine, where she studied under the renown Ed Moses and major contributors to the Light and Space Movement, such as Craig Kauffman, Robert Irwin, and Larry Bell. Though the influence of the “cool school” of Southern California artists is apparent in her work, Forthal-Carruth’s style takes the abstraction out of Abstract Expressionism.

Rather, her works are purely process-driven, inspired by found materials and developed through experimentation and happenstance. Possessing this knowledge, the viewer must confront their own imagination, acknowledging that they must either take responsibility for ascribing meaning to the work or accept the lack thereof.