Martha Colburn was born in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. She received BA from Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore and MA equivalent from Rijksakademie Van Beeldende Kunst (Royal Academy of Art) in Amsterdam. She travels extensively exhibiting and lecturing on her work.

A self-taught filmmaker, she began in 1994 with found footage and Super 8 cameras and has since completed over 40 films. She also selects elements from her films and uses slide projections and murals to create installations. She has taught workshops on her animation technique in China, Europe, Canada, and all parts of America. She has made music videos and music-art films for bands such as Deerhoof and  Felix Kubin and contributed animation to the documentary ‘The Devil and Daniel Johnson’. Her work is exhibited in galleries and museums around the world. Martha Colburn lives and works in New York and Amsterdam.