Frances Oldham Murphy was born in 1950 in southeastern Idaho and lived in Rexburg, Idaho until 1969. Her mother, Mary Smith Oldham, was an attorney who took baby Frances to work with her at her law office.
Having grown up in a small town, Frances was understandably eager to get away after high school. She moved to Salt Lake City and attended the University of Utah, majoring in Anthropology. While there she also received an associate degree in business. She then returned to Idaho for several years, working as a legal assistant/paralegal.
In 1981, Frances quit her job and moved to Tucson, Arizona to attend the University of Arizona. She graduated with distinction in 1984, earning a bachelor's degree in Fine Arts with an emphasis on Photography. Frances believes that challenge and motivation are the components of a long life and that belief inspired her to leave friends, family and job and move to Tucson to study art.
Frances moved to Seattle, Washington in 1984 and worked as a paralegal for two large law firms specializing in commercial real estate lending. Her art training was never far from her heart, though. She purchased her own loom and began weaving in 1990. In 2002 Frances opened her own fiber art studio, Pupster Productions (a name inspired by her Airedale Terriers who liked to curl up at her feet while she worked in the studio).
Frances and her husband, Steve, moved to Surprise, Arizona in 2007 where they became involved with the Sun City Grand Drama and Comedy Club and later became founding members of the theater group, Compass Players. In 2008 Frances met fellow fiber artist and mentor, Betty Hahn, and began her true passion: art quilting.
Frances has long been inspired by the vivid colors, endless vistas, and extraordinary fragility of the Sonoran Desert. Its impact can be seen in all of her fiber art.