Geoff Jones, who calls Lascassas his current home, is somewhat of a Renaissance man.

Perhaps the artist, historian and writer’s most intriguing claim to fame is being the only student of world-famous painter Grandma Moses outside of the Moses family.

Jones knew the family well during his boyhood days growing up in Eagle Bridge, N.Y., he said.

He also worked with Moses’ grandson, a trumpet player, later in life.

“It wasn’t a fluke that Grandma Moses was a genius. Her whole family was that way,”Jones said.

As an artist, Jones is best known for his ink renderings of historical buildings (he actually drew Moses’ schoolhouse for her biography). He has plans to begin a series featuring some of the buildings in the Murfreesboro area, he said.

In addition to Moses, Jones counts Vincent Van Gogh and Norman Rockwell among his greatest influences.

“I was influenced by a lot of different artists,” he said.

The 45-year painting veteran believes a work of art should be original, while at the same time pay respect to the artists who came before and inspired the piece, Jones told The Murfreesboro Pulse on a beautiful day outside his studio.

In addition to creating art, Jones also enjoys revealing new insights into areas of history.

“Any kind of offbeat subject, I’m very interested in,” he said.

One of the man’s treasured documents is a book of poetry given by Robert Todd Lincoln to Lucy Hale, a girlfriend of John Wilkes Booth, thereby romantically linking the girlfriend of the man who shot former President Abraham Lincoln with the president’s son.

Jones also owns a book formerly in poet Emily Dickenson’s private collection. Jones speculates this work actually inspired many of Dickenson’s lyrics.

He helped make lost-manuscript corrections to some of Lord Byron’s poems. The corrected versions are now contained in the Oxford University Press edition of the English poet’s works.

Jones actually worked with Academy Award-

winning actor William Hurt developing the character of Lord Byron as Hurt portrayed the poet in a play.

Another of Jones’ projects was publishing a short-lived poetry publication, called Omega. One of the editions contained a work from writer Ray Bradbury, another source of pride for Jones, he said.

Currently, besides working on his drawings of local historical sites, Jones is also creating a play set in the early 1800s called “Bishopthorpe.”