On a sunny, windswept day in early September, students from Professor and Chair of Printmaking Melissa Haviland’s class gathered at OHIO’s Land Lab, nestled along the path to Radar Hill, to prepare plots for planting flax in a newly created Fiber and Dye Garden.
The project was originally conceived by Assistant Professor of Printmaking Matthew Presutti (BFA ’05) as a way to develop a sustainable source of fibers and dyes for use in his papermaking practice. In his second year of teaching at OHIO, Presutti drew on prior experience collaborating with an agricultural institute at his former university, where he grew hemp and flax for similar purposes. That experience sparked the idea for a new interdisciplinary collaboration on campus.
Upon arriving in Athens, Presutti struggled to find local sources capable of supplying the volume of plant fibers needed for sustainable studio use. He also hoped to create a more immersive, “field-to-studio” learning experience for students, one that would extend beyond the traditional indoor classroom setting. With that vision in mind, he reached out to the Environmental and Plant Biology Department and quickly found a partner in Department Chair Jared DeForest.
“When Matt contacted me, it was like, ‘Oh, I see an opportunity to do some interesting interdisciplinary science,’” DeForest said. “I’m a soil biogeochemist and ecosystem ecologist. My whole career has focused on understanding how different proportions of soil nutrients, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, alter ecosystem function and community composition.”
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