Rob Hodges Crafts

About Rob

The threads and themes that have come together to weave and play and shape the “me” that is me are many and varied.  I have been fortunate to live many places in the world and have been impacted by the cultural traditions and practices, ways of being and understanding, ways of making and doing that are represented by the people living in those places — too many to name.  Presently my wife and I live in the foothills of the Sequoia National Forest in central California, on a small plot of land with a river flowing through it.  This is a place we steward and learn from daily, as best we’re able. In generations past it was inhabited by, tended by, and nurtured by the Yokuts people who continue to speak and make their presence known in many ways. That river, the Middle Fork of the Tule, sings and dances, cools and delights, feeds and nourishes all manner of life.  Sometimes she rages, and when she does, we often find that she has gifted us with beautiful bits of wood or stone from somewhere upstream – each piece with a story to tell or a shape to inspire and feed our imaginations.  These are the elements that conspire to shape and form and drive my ongoing evolution and creative explorations and output.  I’m glad you have dropped in (from somewhere upstream?) to explore.  You are welcome here.

For those who might prefer a less whimsical and more “just the facts” bio statement, here you go: 

Rob Hodges is a cellist, singer, and composer who enjoys collaborating with artists of all stripes.  He earned his Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from UC Santa Barbara in 2009 after having spent many years teaching in higher education as well as conducting fieldwork research on funerary ritual and songs of grief in North Sumatra, Indonesia.  Rob’s ongoing musical interests and explorations involve mind – body – spirit connections to music in relation to healing, ritual, and collaborative improvisation.  Rob is a labyrinth designer and builder as well as an Advanced Labyrinth Walk Facilitator, having trained through Veriditas International Association in 2017 and in 2022.  It was through one of his early landscape projects that Rob came to know the labyrinth intimately, after having installed one on a client’s property for her daily walking / praying meditation practice.  He takes profound pleasure in connecting with others through musical offerings during labyrinth walks, whether online or in person, and he continues to grow in his understanding of the labyrinth as an organ of healing, processing, and profound spiritual and emotional significance.    Rob and his wife (and collaborative partner) poet, Catherine Abbey Hodges, live and work at The Croft, their home in the southern Sierra Nevada foothills, near Springville, California.