Lindsey Anderson grew up in Iowa. At the age of seventeen, she became the first in her high school to join the National Guard, viewing it as an adventure and an opportunity to travel. This decision came before the events of 9/11, a day she vividly remembers in her physics class, realizing that her life would change drastically from that moment onward.

In 2003, Lindsey was deployed to Iraq. Uncertain of what lay ahead, she recalls the moment they learned they were headed to Baghdad only once they were already in the air. It was during this journey that she witnessed grown men crying for the first time. Assigned to food duties, Lindsey found herself with little involvement in food-related tasks as they were contracted out to special service employees from KBR or Halliburton. In her spare time, she collected objects left over from Desert Storm, cataloging and sending them back home—a lesson in history that fueled her interest in art as a collection of history.