Liam Murphy was born in Toronto, Ontario in 1964. He studied art at Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario under the tutelage of David Blackwood, graduating in 1983. He completed a four year Diploma at the Ontario College of Art and then went on to Laval University, Quebec City, Canada where he graduated with a Visual Arts degree in 1990.  He completed his Teacher education at Daemen College in Amherst, New York and at the University of Toronto.