Keay is currently a Lipman Fellow in Newcastle University's Fine Art Department. Her doctoral project builds on previous work that investigated how art and the natural world interact, exploiting dynamic natural processes that can influence the final form of a sculpture. Her earlier work with bees on wax sculptures reflected on humans and insects as social creatures, employing the context of 1930s utopian architecture. She is currently working in collaboration with the Dove Marine Laboratory outside Newcastle producing sculptures modified by living marine creatures.