Photography by Victoria Sedefian

Occasionally, I’ll meet someone and think, “Oh, we’re going to be friends.” Brynna Hall is one of those people.

I don’t remember exactly what she was wearing when we first crossed paths in the SoBro pollinator garden a couple of years ago, but I imagine it was scuffed Blundstones and cuffed overalls—her signature look that, on some, could easily lean performative hipster but on her is utterly authentic. Those boots have touched dirt. Those paint stains weren’t on the overalls when she bought them.

The daughter of a Marine Corps helicopter pilot and an acupuncturist, Brynna spent her childhood moving every couple of years for her dad’s work. In 2019, when she was working as a high school art teacher in Massachusetts, she spent a week as an artist in residence at Camp Stomping Ground in Middle Grove, and three years later left her job to become the director of that very artist-in-residence program. “2026 was my first summer not working or creating in the container that is Stomping Ground,” she says. “But, man, my time there really taught me how I want to show up as a leader, how to make meaningful connections, and the importance of maintaining a sense of whimsy.”

Now, Brynna splits her time between Loomy, the nature-based garden design company she started; the Tang Teaching Museum, where she works as an on-call museum educator; and various eco-centric volunteer committees. I knew I wanted to be her friend from the start, but chatting with Brynna this past summer, I realized she’s even cooler than I originally thought.

I run into you everywhere. How’d you go about getting involved when you first moved here?

Being new to the area, I’ve found real community volunteering with our local nonprofits. Pitney Meadows throws the best farm party. SoBro Conservancy’s pocket garden is like a beacon of light and hope in a sea of yellow pesticide flags and overly trimmed shrubs on South Broadway. And Sustainable Saratoga’s Pollinator Committee is selling out hundreds of native plants in three hours at their Pollinator Palooza. Save the date for their fall plant sale event on October 4 at Hudson Crossing Park—real ones know to show up early and to bring a cart!

Why’d you decide to put down roots in Saratoga (pun intended)?

The parks, the historic buildings, and the folks that are fighting to preserve the architectural details and the character of the place. The way the city can come off as very cookie-cutter at first glance, but if you take the time to scratch the surface, there is a vibrant network of professors, musicians, journalists, filmmakers, and farmers—all passionate about and active in the city they live in. And they likely all know each other somehow. Having moved around so much as a kid, I really crave the small-town feeling of knowing your neighbors, and I love that as a newcomer, it is still very possible to tap into a thriving community here.

What’s your favorite fall activity in upstate New York?

I really love the back-to-school vibe. (Can continuing ed count as an activity?) The past two years, I’ve harnessed that energy and enrolled in courses at the Berkshire Botanical Garden. Traveling for the classes allowed me to do my second favorite thing: leaf-peeping on the Northway. This year, I plan to stay close to home—I hear good things about the oil-painting classes at Saratoga Arts..

Tell me about Loomy Design Studio. You call it an “experiment”—why?

Loomy was born out of a tapestry loom prototype I made in college using MDF and a laser cutter. At the time, I was collecting “trash” and weaving with found objects. It was important for me to be able to have a loom I could travel with. The name felt nonsensical enough to apply to my artistic practice as a whole, which has now grown to include garden and landscape design.

I call it an experiment because it takes the pressure off having it all figured out. I’m still figuring out an ethical business plan in an industry that’s so dependent on physical labor and weather conditions. How can folks find employment in the off-season? How long can I work for myself or for any small business in a country/state that doesn’t provide health insurance? Open to ideas and feedback at this time…

What do you love about gardening?

Professionally, the ability to be outside, to tap into a world and a knowing that is bigger than me. The ability to work by yourself but never be “alone,” because you’re always working alongside teeny-tiny fungi, or chipmunks, or voles, or the changing light.

Personally, being able to putter! Puttering is so underrated. To move from one task to another—even if you don’t complete the first task—in a very low-risk, high-reward environment is so great for an overstimulated brain.

When you’re not making art or gardening, where can people find you?

Slowly furnishing our home with Facebook Marketplace and estate sale finds; I have high hopes that the new Clifton Park Goodwill will level up the thrifting possibilities in the area. Also, showing interest in my cat’s hobbies and staring out the window at the birds with her!

What’s something you wish more people knew?

I want people to know that gardening can be a form of resistance, and gardening for ecology can have a real effect on the number of pollinators and birds able to survive into the future.

We can no longer (if it ever even was part of the plan) rely on our public lands to prevent the rapid decline of bird and insect species—aka mass extinction. However—and these numbers come from ecologist Doug Tallamy—if we were to steward even half of the 40 million acres of private land in this country with the intention of stabilizing pollinator and bird populations, we can make a massive difference preserving biodiversity. A walk through the buzzing SoBro Triangle—formerly a dusty, vacant lot—is living proof that if you build it, they will come.

Here in Saratoga, the horticultural community is really being propelled forward by local nonprofits. Pitney Meadows, Sustainable Saratoga, and SoBro Conservancy, are all offering up free resources—free seeds, opportunities to learn and work alongside garden mentors, educational workshops, and planting initiatives. It really feels like a no-brainer to get involved and make some friends along the way.

What do you hope to be doing 10 years from now?

Teaching others how to care for the land, making art in an outdoor museum setting à la Stormking, and propagating our native carnivorous plants!

What’s Saratoga’s best-kept secret?

It’s not a secret, but we are not talking about the impact of Urban Renewal and the devastating impact it had and continues to have on the BIPOC residents of this city. Filmmaker Careina Yard and C.R.E.A.T.E. Studios are working on a project related to this called “Erasing Spaces & Faces: The Legacy of Urban Renewal in Saratoga Springs.”

Is there an overarching mission to your work?

I want to empower people to be creative. As an art teacher, it is so rewarding to show students that drawing is not the only valid form of art-making and there are so many avenues of creative expression to tap into. If we are just a speck on a giant spinning rock why not use our free will to make this life as creative and beautiful as possible?

Do you have any life philosophies?

Leave spaces better than you found them.