 Maksymowicz was born in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn (New York) to working-class parents of Polish-Irish-German-English heritage.Her father worked as a bartender at the Seafarers International Union.She studied art on the undergraduate level at Brooklyn College, CUNY (BA 1973) with Lucas Samaras, Ronald Mehlman, David Sawin, Morris Dorsky, Murray Israel and Walter Rosenblum.