Anne Lindberg has been working on a series of “plumbago” drawings that employs a full range of graphite hardness to create slow meditative fields of lines. While the drawings appear extremely minimal, at close range the intensity of the hand and body is evidenced in the variations of the line. Lindberg was attracted to the solitary nature of Thoreau’s working methods and his sense of individuality. Another source of inspiration is Thoreau’s role as an innovator in the pencil industry. In 1821 Thoreau’s uncle, Charles Dunbar, discovered graphite or plumbago in New Hampshire and set up a pencil factory with his brother-in-law John, Henry’s father, who eventually started a pencil making business in Concord, MA. Over the years Henry worked on and off in the family business and developed innovations which gave the business a competitive edge. He used clay as a binder to mix with inferior “New World” graphite to create a variety of lead weights resulting in graduated hardness. He also developed a grinding mill, a pipe-forming machine and water wheel designs. While recognized today as a writer, his inventions improved an essential tool for artists, philosophers, scientists, and intellectuals.

Anne Lindberg taps into a non-verbal, visceral place with both drawing and sculpture, and has looked to writing and natural processes as a source in other series. She has had solo exhibitions at Dolphin Gallery, Kansas City, MO; Dennos Museum Center, Northwestern Michigan College, Traverse City, MI; Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden, University of Nebraska at Lincoln; Meadows Gallery, University of Texas at Tyler; and Belger Art Center, Kansas City, MO. She has been included in many group exhibitions including Hot House, Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI; Decelerate, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO; We Buy Art, Urban Culture Project, Kansas City, MO. Her work is in numerous private and public collections. She earned her BFA from Miami University, Oxford, OH and her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI.

For more information: www.annelindberg.com