In 1959 a close friend from art school, Marjorie Woodside, gave Phyllis an old Potter proof press which had been getting rusty in the garage. With the help of Marge’s printer husband, Woodie, she resurrected it and began printing linoleum prints in her basement studio. She discovered that a fine-grained bulletin board cork was marvelous to work with––responding to great sweeping cuts––but difficult to print, requiring extensive experimentation. “I did feel that not having studied printmaking was a release in a way because I didn’t have any rules.” What she did have was a ready-made supply of personal images in her figure studies from the sketch group. (see Girl with Curly Hair, 1974, a direct translation of a brush drawing into a cork cut) In a sampling of Phyllis’ cork cuts one finds three major interrelationships of subject––figure in interior, interior with figure and dominant still life––which will be echoed in silkscreens and acrylics through the years.
– H. Daniel Butts III, The Art of Phyllis Sloane
