Phil Battaglia was born and raised on the northwest side of Chicago. In 1956 he was drafted into the Army Security Agency and sent to Korea. While in Korea he was recruited by the Department of State and upon his discharge from the Army, was employed by the State Department. He studied diplomacy and languages at the Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, Virginia. He has since worked and lived in Colombia, Cuba, Korea, Thailand, France, Spain, Italy, Jamaica, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Trinidad & Tobago and Mexico. He studied art in Washington D.C., and with prominent teachers in all of the European countries in which he lived. He has had several exhibits overseas and since his retirement from government service has exhibited and sold his work mainly in Florida. The richness and breadth of Phillip's life experiences has afforded him a unique platform from which to develop his paintings over the last 40 years.