Born and raised in southern Ontario, Sylvia Nickerson began her formal art education in high school, at the Etobicoke School of the Arts in Toronto. In 1997 Sylvia moved to New Brunswick and attended Mount Allison University, where she studied both fine arts and mathematics. In 2001, Sylvia graduated Mount Allison with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. In 2003, she graduated with a degree in mathematics.

Since 2001, Sylvia has tutored mathematics to university students, designed books for Mosaic Press, created illustrations for magazines and newspapers and worked as an arts administrator in the Canadian book publishing industry. Her illustrations have been published in The Globe and Mail, The National Post, Briarpatch magazine, Dogs in Canada magazine, The Literary Review of Canada, The Coast (Halifax's free newspaper), The New Quarterly, Carousel Magazine, The Canadian Undergraduate Physics Journal, and Freedom to Read magazine. She is a regular contributing illustrator to The Dominion.

Sylvia currently divides her time between Toronto and Hamilton. In Toronto she studies at the University of Toronto in the department of history and philosophy of science. In Hamilton she has an art studio on James Street North and is part of the thriving Hamilton arts community.