Gifford graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1966 with a BFA, and exhibited at the Main Street Gallery in the 1980s. She worked in intaglio printmaking for years, selling her press and etching equipment in 1980 to shift into monoprints and oils on paper as well as ceramics. In comparison to the intaglio, she has called the monoprint technique “a less laborious, more spontaneous process, with multiple possibilities.”