A native of Hillsborough, North Carolina, Elizabeth Matheson earned her BA from Sweet Briar College and later studied at the Penland School of Crafts with John Menapace. One-person exhibitions of her work include Hollins University, the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, the North Carolina Museum of Art, Duke University, Western Carolina University, the National Humanities Center, and the Gregg Museum at North Carolina State University. Her work is in the collections of Duke University, the Ackland Museum, the North Carolina Museum of Art, among many others. Among  her publications are  To See, poems by Michael McFee, North Carolina Wesleyan Press, 1991; Blithe Air: Photographs of England, Wales, and Ireland, Jargon  Society, 1995; and Shell Castle, Portrait of a North Carolina House, Safe Harbor Books, 2008. In 2004, Elizabeth Matheson was awarded the North Carolina Award for Excellence in the Arts, the state`s highest civilian honor.