Hannah Lin & Robert Rusch: Art and Gardening

When Hannah and Robert aren’t running their print studio, they’re still creating art at home. They work as a team to make their garden space into something both functional and beautiful. The pieces they create enhance the garden, and vice versa. 

“It made the art look better. Having the garden around it, y’know?”

For both of them, the garden is more than just a nice green space in their backyard. 

In Robert’s case, the connection to plants is deep rooted within that very yard. The home they’re in belonged to his grandfather, who gardened as well with a lot of help from the neighbors. 

On the other hand, Hannah feels a more spiritual connection. She was not close with her grandparents, but having a relationship with plants goes back for generations, ranging from her biology professor grandmother to her great-grandfather farming bean sprouts. 

“And this is actually something I realized pretty recently that there's that like connection. Like, I'm not really a religious person, but I think there's a sense of spirituality when I'm out there in the garden.”

Whether it was Robert helping his grandfather in the garden through his childhood, or Hannah continuing the community spirit by gardening with the neighbors, that yard holds a special sentiment for the whole family.

A film by Michael Chernoff.