She came over to me at a time when my second wife (Clara - Editor's remark) and I were in San Jacinto. I was drawing the comic books, and a little article had been printed about me in the newspaper about how I was working on duck comic strips, and I guess Garé had heard about it, and she thought maybe I might have some work that she could do to help out. She came over and talked and asked about it. I thought it all over and I thought, well, do I want to take on the responsibility of an assistant, and how much work could I provide for this girl if I did? And so I handed her a bunch of duck model sheets and told her to practice on those, and see what she could do in the way of inking and so on. She tried it out and let me know, that she found it much too difficult.
So it was years later that I persuaded her to try out on the lettering. She had been working at an aircraft office (McDonnell Douglas - Editor's remark) during the war, doing drafting of these big bombers and so on, so she had gotten to have a wonderful lettering style.

...Garé finally got her big painting orders done. We hauled the last crate to the airport yesterday afternoon and came home and collapsed...

Unfortunately, Garé’s health condition went rapidly bad. A few days after Carl’s 90th birthday he wrote to a friend:
Mostly we stay close to the pill bottles and try to avoid any social activity. There will be no more trips to the redwoods.

About the script of 'Be Leery of Lake Eerie' (HDL17 - Editor's remark), Garé already has put her claim on it. She read it in its original form and pronounced it the best I had ever written...

...We are in a cyclone of overwork at the moment. Garé was snowed under with painting work that had to be done...
...I dropped my small painting endeavors and the Woodchuck story to work all day today stretching and priming canvases for Garé. There seems no hope that Garé can complete all the stuff she has to do and have time to exhibit at the art show. But it has to be done...

...We swear that we will slow down and be like lazy people, but somehow we always get suckered into a string of rush jobs that take all of our time and leave us cranky and worn out...

...I would hand the page over to my wife, who would do the lettering and ink in all the background details. She'd ink in all those things. And she would put in the solid blacks in the duck's jacket and the eyeballs, and so on. And then she would hand it back to me for whatever finishing was required...

...I've very much lost interest in comic books since retiring a year ago. My wife is quite an accomplished artist in oils, and I get much pleasure out of pushing her career. We take her paintings around to galleries in Laguna Beach, Palm Springs, and nearer places to replace those that sell...
...We've just returned from a weekend in Santa Barbara, where we showed on the Beachwalk at their Arts Fiesta. Garé (my wife) was probably the biggest seller of the show. Certainly she had the highest-priced paintings...

The Menehune Mystery (U$04 'Hawaiian Hideaway' - Editor's remark) had become Garé's story; we see that in every leaf and flower she inked. She was the authority for all that moolamoola, chuckled Carl, I still don't believe that those damned Menehunes ever existed.

Cemeteries and funerals are for the living. When I go out to visit Garé's grave, I can almost feel her presence, but to visualize what's really there - by now a bunch of bones in a coffin - I feel that's none of my business.

...The orders for my duck paintings far exceed the available time I have left in my life to paint them. Garé is almost as bad off herself. The demand for her paintings from the card publishers and print publishers and galleries keeps her hopping...

Between the late 1950s and the early 1970s Carl Barks had a long transitional period, in which he slowly turned from working full-time with comic book stories to working full-time with oil paintings. He started to paint with watercolours, gouache, and oils, under the supervision of his wife Garé who was a very skilled landscape painter. In the first years Barks mainly painted portraits of young girls in exotic surroundings. Then he started to paint landscapes. But while Garé sold well in exhibitions and markets in the neighbourhood, her husband never sold anything.
Being the realist he was Barks wound down his activities in the early 1970s (as he wrote to a friend: I'll be glad when Garé earns enough money to support me, so I can retire for real!).

...Your letter with all the orders arrived today. Looks like I can be busy for a long time. Surely now Disney must be impressed by the sheer volume of demand, and may (I hope) renew my license at year end.
Garé tells me that in view of the number of orders in the backlog, I should raise my prices to $200.00...

Carl and Garé friendly teased each other about their chosen painting motifs:
Here is another one of Garé’s paintings, said Carl, As you can see it is a lot of trees.
Garé responded: Oh, should you say that, you only paint ducks!

...We are both very busy. Garé has dashed off several small paintings to fill urgent orders ... I, too, am trying to get some small paintings finished ... I'll be glad when Garé earns enough money to support me, so I can retire for real...