Maria do Carmo Secco began her studies at Escola Nacional de Belas Artes in Rio de Janeiro, where she studied drawing, painting and art history. She later returned to art studies at the Museu de Arte Moderna, and then enrolled in an intensive course on art in education at Escolinha de Arte do Brasil. In 1993, Secco began to teach art at the Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage, Rio de Janeiro and has been teaching ever since. In 1964 she began her solo shows in Brazil and abroad, exhibiting paintings, objects and drawings. Her interest in drawing as a support (paper) has grown since the beginning of the 1970s when she began using words as a poetical reinforcement in her works. Experimental interests led her to expand her artistic language by using super-8 films and photography. Since the 1990s, she has exhibited "Desenhos Efêmeros" (Ephemeral Drawings) and "Objetos Gráficos" (Graphic Objects), an experiment with new graphic techniques.