tamblyn was born in 1951 in waukegan, illinois, and attended a catholic girls' school in mundelein, carmel high school for girls. she was very shy as a child and never learned to ride a bike or drive a car. she moved to chicago in 1968 or 1969 and began to audit courses at the university of chicago while working as an administrative assistant for an insurance company. around 1973 she began undergraduate studies at the school of the art institute of chicago, where she focused on video and performance because of what she saw as their links to everyday life. her aesthetic in this period was deeply influenced by the work of allan kaprow and the happenings of the late 1950s and early 1960s, as well as by the chicago imagist school of videomakers, which included her teacher phil morton. she taught graduate-level courses in video while still an undergraduate.