Julie Kiefer-Bell holds a B.A. in Comprehensive Art and M.A. in Painting and Drawing from St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and an M.F.A. in Painting and Drawing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison

From 1979 through 1988, she taught as adjunct faculty for Northern Illinois University's School of Art in DeKalb, Illinois, and/or Kishwaukee College in Malta, Illinois. She taught a rendering course for the School of Theatre Arts, Northern Illinois University, from 1992-1998 and continued teaching drawing at Kishwaukee College from 1998-2000.

Kiefer-Bell has exhibited her paintings and drawings in numerous national, regional and vicinity juried competitions and invitationals. She is represented in many private, public and corporate collections, past and present, including: American Family Insurance, St. Cloud and St. Paul, Minnesota; Arthur Young, Naperville, Illinois; Associated Bank of DeKalb; Beverly Arts Center, Chicago; Blue Cross of Chicago; Chicago Botanic Garden, Glencoe; DeKalb Area Women's Center; DeKalb County Lung Clinic, DeKalb; DuPage County Library System, Geneva, Illinois; Fingerhut Manufacturing, St. Cloud, Minnesota; First American National Bank, Rockford, Illinois; French's Cafe, Omaha, Nebraska; Hollister Corporation, Des Plaines, Illinois; Kemper Group Art Collection, Long Grove, Illinois; Kishwaukee College, Malta, Illinois; Madison Area Technical College, Wisconsin; Meridian Country Club, Indianapolis, Indiana; Midwest Sports Medicine & Orthopaedics, DeKalb; Monsanto/DEKALB Genetics, DeKalb; Muscatine Art Center, Iowa; National Bank & Trust, DeKalb; Nestle Distribution Center, DeKalb; Pfizer, Inc., New York City; State of Illinois, Willard B. Ice Building, Springfield; St. Cloud State University; St. John of the Cross Parish Center, Western Springs, Illinois; Union League Club, Chicago; University of Illinois, Urbana; and Western Illinois University, Macomb.

She has received various awards for her paintings and drawings including the Governor's Award/Best of Show at the Illinois State Fair Professional Exhibition, Springfield; Jurors' First Place Award in Painting at Spirit Echoes Gallery in Austin, Texas; Jurors' Best of Show Award (twice) and First Award in Painting at the Norris Gallery in St. Charles, Illinois; Juror's Choice Award in Painting, Best of Show plus Art Center Purchase Awards through Muscatine Art Center competitions in Iowa; Kemper Group Purchase Award at Harper College in Palatine, Illinois; Purchase Awards through competitions at the Beverly Arts Center in Chicago, Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe, Western Illinois University in Macomb, the Union League Club of Chicago and the State of Illinois Percent for Art; plus, other Juror awards at the Beverly Art Center in Chicago, Norris Gallery in St. Charles, the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe, Max'ims Mountain Gallery in Greeley, Colorado, Elgin Community College in Elgin, Illinois, Burpee art Museum in Rockford, Illinois, and Beloit College's Wright Museum of Art in Beloit, Wisconsin.

Her "Foliar" series of oil paintings, which began in 1977, explored aesthetics in the commonplace through interpretations of potential translucent and luminous properties of foliage.

Since 1990, she has expanded her explorations of the commonplace environment to include groupings of trees which also incorporate translations of luminosity and translucency. In order to heighten the luminosity and color intensities present in these environments, she began using metallic, iridescent, pearlescent and interference oil paints in combination with traditional oils.

The early "Parkscape" works were done on canvas or gessoed paper with the specialty pigments capturing the "glisten" present in nature. In 1997, she began using this media on textured papers embedded with bark and fibers. The natural textures both accentuate and contradict the painted images as does light hitting the irregular, reflective surfaces. Also in 1997, she added flowers as subjects on the textured paper and on canvas.

She is represented by Gallery 323 in Madison, Wisconsin, and the DeKalb Gallery in DeKalb, Illinois.