Bay Area printmaker and mixed-media artist Phyllis Taplitz was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 13, 1930. She received her BFA at Massachusetts College of Art in 1952 and took post-graduate courses at Adelphi University, graduating in 1966. She was a member of the California Society of Printmakers and the Marin Arts Council, and is inlcuded in the Who's Who of American Women, Marquis, 21st ed., 1999-2000.

Taplitz exhibited frequently throughout the San Francisco Bay Area from the 1970s through the 1990s, including at the Marin Civic Center, Dominican College, the Mill Valley Arts Guild, and at Chico State's Turner Gallery with Wayne Thiebaud, Christo, and others. She also participated in the Fort Mason Printmakers exhibitions when she worked with them in the 1970s and '80s.