As a child, Lindley Briggs was immersed in the world of art. Her mother was an accomplished artist who decided to raise a family and teach art in public schools, rather than seek her career in New York.  Art supplies abounded in her household, and frequent trips were made to museums. Lindley's art lessons were more intuitive than formal. As a young teen, she cut linoleum and wood blocks as well as inking fish and maple leaves to create prints on paper. After two years of back to back liberal arts courses in college, she took her first formal art class. Her final two years of college were totally filled with art classes. Sculpture completely hooked her. She had a wonderful teacher and was given her own private studio where her art flourished.

Wanting to continue her training, Lindley enrolled at the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts. The first year she studied with traditional academic instructors, working with the model and learning traditional skills. Her diligence was awarded with a full scholarship to Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in sculpture for the summer.

The second year, all classes were done away with and chaos ensued. Lindley left, but not before meeting her husband to be, painting student Jeffery Briggs, at the Viennese Restaurant in Harvard Square where they both worked. Together they started making waterbed frames for a local company, which subsequently folded, leaving them with a great deal of wood. They began creating wooden butterflies, dragonflies, moths and oversized wooden flowers, which they marketed through the Rhinebeck Show, an American Crafts Council juried craft show. They sold their pieces successfully for 15 years (making over 6000 wooden butterflies).  Jeff began creating larger one of a kind carvings and Lindley created wooden fantasy assemblages, incorporating winged women, flowers, and blades of grass which were marketed by a visual merchandising company in Manhattan, as well as sold in galleries.