Jae Hodges
             Author, Photographer, Genealogist, Traveler
The Abstracted Artist

Arches have been called the symbols of strength, openness, thresholds between worlds. I've been thinking about arches for recently,...

Virginia Woolf had a room of her own. Vladimir Nabokov said "If I do not demand an ivory tower it is because I am quite happy in my...

I collect quotations. I started doing it when I was working--I had a wipe board on the door of my office and I'd post a new quote...

"I have considered the eyes of the world for so long that I think it is time I had a little holiday from them. If one is not to please...

Whimsy -- "a fanciful or fantastic device, object, or creation especially in writing or art" (Merriam-Webster). I've been thinking a lot...

A Single Panel of the Berlin Wall, Newseum, Washington D.C., July 2009 I've been going through old pictures of my time in Germany, just...

"The public, as whole, finds reassurance in longevity, and, after the necessary interlude of reaction, is disposed to recognise extreme...

My thanks, Gwendalyn, for the terrific review of The Rose and the Whip today on your instagram site at https://www.instagram.com/gwendaly...

Did you see my interview with Amy yesterday in Passages to the Past at http://www.passagestothepast.com/#. If not, check it out. For my...

I've read two things in the last two days, from two different points of view, saying the same thing. Art is about feeling. Francis Bacon,...

From under the tutelage of a past fading perhaps, but never lost From out of a mirror we step On wobbling feet, walk ahead Seeing...

In my second novel, one of the themes I'm working with is seeing the past for what it is. Not truth, as truth exists only as long as the...

In a certain biography of an admired artist, one of the chapters begins with "No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he...

It isn't necessarily important to know that this guy is a collared aracari. A toucan by any other name is, after all, still a toucan....

This guy is over a hundred years old, and 1000 pounds. That alone is amazing to me. The only thing I found more impressive about seeing...

Someone once said that eyes are the windows to the soul. Do you think they meant to include animals? Emphatically I say, I do! I have a...

Aside from my travelling, I seem to use my photography as a reward for finishing some bit of, dare I say, good writing. This week I've...

We can find a spot of color in an otherwise bleak world; we can imagine a better day, near or far, when a spark can light up a picture;...

On Tuesday, May 5, 1663, Lidia Wardell was tried, convicted and whipped at the White Horse Tavern in Ipswich, Massachusetts Bay Colony....

There are just some days when I feel like I don't have anything to say. On those days, it's best to hide out in my tower, put on some...