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Estranged in Strange Lands
by Carla Lucchetta
A walk around Barbara Hodgson's office in an old bank building on West Pender in Vancouver quickly reveals her penchant for mining the flea markets of the world. She literally draws her inspiration from her collection of antique, yellowed photographs, 19th century travel clothing and painting kits that women like her once used to document their travels in bygone eras. By luck or design Hodgson has created a life for herself that allows her to follow her many ideas for books and projects. An avid traveler, archaeologist, archivist and photographer, she has written, illustrated and designed four novels and seven non-fiction books in as many years. This year Hodgson's work includes Italy Out of Hand: A Capricious History (Greystone $26.95) and the newly released Dreaming of East: Western Women and the Exotic Allure of the Orient (Greystone $34.95).
Although her books have settings outside North America, Hodgson maintains most of her ideas don't depend on travel experiences. "I find displacement intriguing,"; she says. "I'm mostly interested in how people cope outside of their milieu and how it stretches their characters.";
Born in Edmonton, Barbara Hodgson had her first experience of displacement at the age eighteen when she moved to Vancouver. She earned an archaeology degree from SFU and attended Emily Carr Art Institute for training in graphic arts. After working for a time at Douglas and McIntyre as a book designer, Hodgson struck out on her own as a freelance book designer. She also teamed up with Nick Bantock designing books and working on ideas for illustrated novels.
The Tattooed Map, her first illustrated novel, came to life in 1995 after she was encouraged by an editor at Chronicle Books of San Francisco. It's the story of a woman who wanders around Morocco with her partner with such open curiosity that she falls victim to the country's mysterious past and ends up disappearing into it. "I tried to travel as Lydia,"; Hodgson says, speaking of the main character in The Tattooed Map. "I talked to people I never normally would have. It gave me so much more material.";
To confirm details for The Sensualist (Raincoast, 1998), her story about one woman's gradual loss of her senses, Hodgson travelled to Vienna, Budapest and Munich. "I had written about an accident in Munich and I wanted to make sure it could actually happen that way,"; she says. "One day I was walking down the street while visiting the city and all of a sudden I saw cars stop and heard sirens. What I had written was happening right in front of me.";
For Hippolyte's Island (Raincoast 2001), Hodgson visited the Falkland Islands where she spent her afternoons watching penguins and photographing her surroundings for illustrations. It's the story of an intrepid traveller who runs out of foreign lands to conquer so he sets out to rediscover the elusive Auroras in the South Atlantic. Hippolyte's meticulous documents about his findings on the islands - the the flora and fauna - become the marginalia that grounds Hodgson's story in reality and also serve as the necessary proof, upon his return, of the existence of the Auroras.
Hodgson's most recent illustrated novel, Lives of Shadows (Raincoast 2004), took her to Damascus, to bring to life the tale of a young Englishman who becomes possessed by his new house and its history written on the walls. As with much of her fiction, Hodgson continually blurs the lines between that which actually exists and that which her characters believe to exist.
There's a fine line of demarcation between Hodgson's fiction and non-fiction. Both are an end result of her wanderlust and inquiring mind. Her fiction has so many real geographical, historical and environmental elements that the stories begin to feel as though they may well have happened. Not only does she create characters but at times she deliberately sets out to live their lives in order to lend a deeper sense of reality to their sketches.
Hodgson writes her stories in tandem with creating the illustrations; each one spurs the other on. That fact is most evident in Lives of Shadows where her artwork and design are at their best, adding context and beauty to a story that is nothing short of page-turning.
Illustrated novels (not including graphic novels, which are growing in popularity) are still fairly rare in publishing and one reason is that they are expensive to make. To keep herself in form she pours her creative energy into non-fiction, creating illustrated histories on opium, morphine, rats, women travellers, and the recent Italy Out of Hand, a truth-is-stranger-than-fiction account of the evolution of Italian culture. When asked to define her career trajectory Hodgson says, "I call myself a writer because it's a short cut. It's just too complicated to draw in all the other aspects of it.";
As long as she can travel and collect artefacts, Hodgson will never be short of ideas for marrying words and pictures.
Next stop, India.
Dreaming 1-55365-118-9
Italy 1-55365-093-X
Carla Lucchetta is a Vancouver writer who also works as a television producer.
A walk around Barbara Hodgson's office in an old bank building on West Pender in Vancouver quickly reveals her penchant for mining the flea markets of the world. She literally draws her inspiration from her collection of antique, yellowed photographs, 19th century travel clothing and painting kits that women like her once used to document their travels in bygone eras. By luck or design Hodgson has created a life for herself that allows her to follow her many ideas for books and projects. An avid traveler, archaeologist, archivist and photographer, she has written, illustrated and designed four novels and seven non-fiction books in as many years. This year Hodgson's work includes Italy Out of Hand: A Capricious History (Greystone $26.95) and the newly released Dreaming of East: Western Women and the Exotic Allure of the Orient (Greystone $34.95).
Although her books have settings outside North America, Hodgson maintains most of her ideas don't depend on travel experiences. "I find displacement intriguing,"; she says. "I'm mostly interested in how people cope outside of their milieu and how it stretches their characters.";
Born in Edmonton, Barbara Hodgson had her first experience of displacement at the age eighteen when she moved to Vancouver. She earned an archaeology degree from SFU and attended Emily Carr Art Institute for training in graphic arts. After working for a time at Douglas and McIntyre as a book designer, Hodgson struck out on her own as a freelance book designer. She also teamed up with Nick Bantock designing books and working on ideas for illustrated novels.
The Tattooed Map, her first illustrated novel, came to life in 1995 after she was encouraged by an editor at Chronicle Books of San Francisco. It's the story of a woman who wanders around Morocco with her partner with such open curiosity that she falls victim to the country's mysterious past and ends up disappearing into it. "I tried to travel as Lydia,"; Hodgson says, speaking of the main character in The Tattooed Map. "I talked to people I never normally would have. It gave me so much more material.";
To confirm details for The Sensualist (Raincoast, 1998), her story about one woman's gradual loss of her senses, Hodgson travelled to Vienna, Budapest and Munich. "I had written about an accident in Munich and I wanted to make sure it could actually happen that way,"; she says. "One day I was walking down the street while visiting the city and all of a sudden I saw cars stop and heard sirens. What I had written was happening right in front of me.";
For Hippolyte's Island (Raincoast 2001), Hodgson visited the Falkland Islands where she spent her afternoons watching penguins and photographing her surroundings for illustrations. It's the story of an intrepid traveller who runs out of foreign lands to conquer so he sets out to rediscover the elusive Auroras in the South Atlantic. Hippolyte's meticulous documents about his findings on the islands - the the flora and fauna - become the marginalia that grounds Hodgson's story in reality and also serve as the necessary proof, upon his return, of the existence of the Auroras.
Hodgson's most recent illustrated novel, Lives of Shadows (Raincoast 2004), took her to Damascus, to bring to life the tale of a young Englishman who becomes possessed by his new house and its history written on the walls. As with much of her fiction, Hodgson continually blurs the lines between that which actually exists and that which her characters believe to exist.
There's a fine line of demarcation between Hodgson's fiction and non-fiction. Both are an end result of her wanderlust and inquiring mind. Her fiction has so many real geographical, historical and environmental elements that the stories begin to feel as though they may well have happened. Not only does she create characters but at times she deliberately sets out to live their lives in order to lend a deeper sense of reality to their sketches.
Hodgson writes her stories in tandem with creating the illustrations; each one spurs the other on. That fact is most evident in Lives of Shadows where her artwork and design are at their best, adding context and beauty to a story that is nothing short of page-turning.
Illustrated novels (not including graphic novels, which are growing in popularity) are still fairly rare in publishing and one reason is that they are expensive to make. To keep herself in form she pours her creative energy into non-fiction, creating illustrated histories on opium, morphine, rats, women travellers, and the recent Italy Out of Hand, a truth-is-stranger-than-fiction account of the evolution of Italian culture. When asked to define her career trajectory Hodgson says, "I call myself a writer because it's a short cut. It's just too complicated to draw in all the other aspects of it.";
As long as she can travel and collect artefacts, Hodgson will never be short of ideas for marrying words and pictures.
Next stop, India.
Dreaming 1-55365-118-9
Italy 1-55365-093-X
Carla Lucchetta is a Vancouver writer who also works as a television producer.
Submitted on August 23, 2005 in By David.
