One of nine children, Phyllis was born in Boston, and lived most of her life in New England. She grew up in Westport, MA and has remained in and around the South Coast area. Although her interest and love has always been in art her career took a different path. She worked for ten years as a computer software manager at Lotus Corporation and IBM in Cambridge and started the first quality engineering lab for Media 100, a digital video editing system. After retiring several years ago she found the urge to paint still strong and so embarked on what she calls her "third life". Much of her time and energy is now spent painting, mostly in acrylics and oils, studying other artist past and present and taking selective classes and seminars and workshops.