Biography

Elizabeth Keel’s journey is a vibrant tapestry of passion, resilience, and profound dedication to the arts. Growing up across Florida with her family, she eventually made her home in the Tampa Bay area, where she continues to live and create. From an early age, her love for singing, drawing, and writing shone through her enthusiasm and joy, setting the stage for a life rich in creativity.

The sudden loss of her father, Cameron Surface, in 2005 deeply affected Elizabeth and her family—especially the three women who were there that night. This tragedy sparked in her an obsession with preserving family memories through photography, and she went on to document tens of thousands of photographs over the following years. In 2018, she endured the untimely passing of her mother, Naomi Surface, which marked another profound turning point in her life and work. These losses—and the generational trauma they revealed—are poignantly explored in her series Epitaph, which reflects on a life shaped by both love and sorrow. 

Elizabeth studied early education, history, and photography at St. Petersburg College, where she debuted her first series, From the Deep, in 2010. She balanced her artistic pursuits with work as a freelance photographer and substitute teacher in Pasco County. Her focus on portraiture allowed her to explore the nuances of identity, emotion, and connection, while her own learning journey and role as an educator gave her a deeper understanding of the human experience—shaping the empathy and attentiveness that now guide her work with others, both in and outside of the studio.

After earning her associate’s degree, Elizabeth transferred to the University of South Florida, where she was awarded the Research in the Arts Scholarship. Her research explored poverty and the transformative power of the arts in social justice while studying and creating art abroad in Paris and London. During her internship at The Arts in Health Clinic, she taught painting and drawing to patients with aphasia, further solidifying her belief in the arts as a powerful tool for healing and change.

Her commitment to art activism was also evident in her work at Project Return, a residential drop-in center for the mentally ill. There, she advocated for expanded curriculum including painting, poetry-focused writing, and current events. Her efforts demonstrated how creativity, enrichment, and joy intersect in healing—and how art can be a catalyst for change and a voice for the marginalized.

Elizabeth’s own mental health journey has been a defining part of her life and her artistic practice. Living with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder has brought both profound challenges and deep insight. Rather than hiding her struggles, she embraces vulnerability as a strength—advocating openly for mental health awareness and offering compassion to those who feel unseen. She is also a committed advocate for survivors of domestic violence, using her voice and platform to hold space for stories often silenced. This lens of lived experience allows her to approach the world with radical empathy, meeting others without judgment and always seeking to uplift through connection, creativity, and kindness.

Whether behind the camera or holding a brush, Elizabeth is always looking for essence—the truth beneath the surface, the quiet dignity of survival, the light people carry even when they think it’s dimmed. She brings this sensibility into every body painting session, where participants often experience moments of reflection, self-acceptance, and reclamation. In transforming the body as a canvas, she is not hiding it—she is honoring it, celebrating it, and returning it to its own power. Her work is both personal and political—an invitation to connection, inclusion, and collective remembering. Through this embodied practice, she explores how trauma is written on the body and how creativity can be a path toward healing.