About Laura

Laura is an artist, farmer, and researcher recently relocated from the Champlain Islands on Vermont’s Canadian border to the island of Ireland. Laura strives to keep her art practice as close to the land as possible, and to stretch the realms of possibility therein.

While in the US, Laura studied at New York University and completed her bachelor’s degree in fine art at Colorado College. After college, she travelled in Europe working on various farms across Portugal before interning with a felt artist in the Netherlands.

More recently, Laura worked for six years as a research specialist growing bast fibers like hemp and flax with the University of Vermont.

In the Fall of 2025, Laura and her team produced the first all-local and commercially spun hemp garments in the modern Northeast. It was also during this time that she completed her MFA in visual art with Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Laura has been making and designing textiles her whole life, but found her focus in natural fiber in 2015 during her undergraduate studies. She is passionate about collaborating with others to revive working landscapes of farmed fiber all over the world, and she currently works in the media of fiber, concept, and performance. 

Education

2024-2026 Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier, VT

Grants

  • 2024 Darby, H. (Co-PI, PD), Kostell, S. (Co-PI), Sullivan, L. (contributing personnel), Hemp Fiber: Building Farmer Capacity to Meet the Opportunities and Challenges of a New Market. USDA (SUNGRANT).

  • 2023-2026 Darby, H. (Co-PI, PD), Kostell, S. (Co-PI), Sullivan, L. (contributing personnel), Hemp Fiber: Building Farmer Capacity to Meet the Opportunities and Challenges of a New Market. USDA / AFRI Critical Agriculture Research and Extension (CARE). $299,913

  • 2023-2024 Kostell, S. (PI), Sullivan, L. (contributing personnel), USDA Hatch Award. Developing divergent fiberstreams: Hemp fiber bio-product prototype development. $39,999

  • 2023-2024 Darby, H. (PI), Hodson, S. (key personnel), Kostell, S. (key personnel), Sullivan, L. (contributing personnel), Hemp Fiber – Finding Value in the Supply Chain. Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE). $29,465

Publications

  • 2025 Darby, H., Sullivan, L. (2025). 2024 Industrial Hemp Fiber Variety Trial. Northwest Crops and Soils Program, University of Vermont Extension

  • Darby, H., Sullivan, L. (2025). 2024 Hemp Grain Variety Trial. Northwest Crops and Soils Program, University of Vermont Extension

  • Darby, H., Sullivan, L. (2025). 2024 Hemp Fiber Seeding Rate Trial. Northwest Crops and Soils Program, University of Vermont Extension

  • Darby, H., Sullivan, L. (2025). 2024 Hemp Fiber Harvest Date Trial. Northwest Crops and Soils Program, University of Vermont Extension

  • Darby, H., Sullivan, L. (2025). 2024 Industrial Hemp Fiber Field Retting Trial. Northwest Crops and Soils Program, University of Vermont Extension

  • 2024 Darby, H., Sullivan, L. (2024). 2023 Industrial Hemp Fiber Variety Trial. Northwest Crops and Soils Program, University of Vermont Extension.

  • Darby, H., Sullivan, L. (2024). 2023 Industrial Hemp Fiber Seeding Rate Trial. Northwest Crops and Soils Program, University of Vermont Extension.

  • Darby, H., Sullivan, L. (2024). 2023 Industrial Hemp Fiber Harvest Date Trial. Northwest Crops and Soils Program, University of Vermont Extension.

Public Presentations/ Lectures/ Workshops

  • 2024 “Building Regional Fibershed Capacity through Cultural Craft Traditions.” Presenter. NOCO Hemp Expo, Estes Park, CO. April 11 to April 13.