 In 1989, she entered the graduate program at The City College of New York, and she received her MFA in 1991.While attending City College, Garnett received the Elizabeth Ralston McCabe Connor Award.In 1999, Debs & Co. gallery, NY, gave Garnett her first solo exhibition, "Buster-Jangle", which consisted of paintings based on photos and film stills of atomic bomb tests from the 1950s released in 1990-91 by the US government under the Freedom of Information Act.