In the 1980s, she painted and showed regularly while living in “Al’s Bar”-adjacent downtown lofts, a member of that tight-knit community of artists and misfits before gentrification remade the area as The Arts District.

A move to Connecticut found Phillips assisting the sculptor Michael Steiner, through whom she met and was influenced by Clement Greenburg, Larry Poons, Ken Noland and Andre Emmerich, among others. Returning to LA, Phillips was the studio director for Richard Duardo’s Modern Multiples and later served as studio assistant for Frank Romero.

Phillips trained in graphic design and embarked on a career as an adaptive designer and production artist, producing ad materials for major motion picture releases. A back injury in 2014 ended her graphics work, and, serendipitously, sent her back to the studio and her first love, painting.  

A native of Pasadena, California, Phillips has a BFA in Fine Art from California Institute of Fine Art (CalArts). She has shown at the Downey Art Museum, LAICA, James Turcott Gallery, Roger Morrison Gallery, The American Gallery and in various alternative spaces in California, Vermont, Washington D.C. and Connecticut. In 1990, she won The Best of Pasadena Weekly artist award, in a tie with Eddie Van Halen and Herbert Bell. Phillips currently resides in Northeast LA with her musician/artist partner and two cats.