Diane Murray fell in love with art while in kindergarten in the Los Angeles School District. In junior high school in Utah, she took private oil painting lessons after school with the art teacher.

She studied drawing, composition, ceramics, and design classes at San Jose State College as an art major before she changing to an academic major. After moving to Pennsylvania in 1969, she taught English in Pittsburgh Public Schools for 34 years before retiring in 2004 when she began renewing her interest in art.