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Art
Above: Upper image: Lydia and a family friend at the Authentica shop in its heyday during the 1990's. Lower image: Scything wheat scene in copper.
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Jack and Lydia Clemmons were avid collectors of African and New England antiquities. The Clemmons Family Farm holds a collection of museum-quality African art from their former Authentica African Arts import business and travels on the African continent. The art collection also includes New England antique farm tools and equipment- many of which are from the original farm’s house and barns which were built between the late 1700s and mid-1800s.
Above: Left: Lydia stands in front of the first Authentica sign (hand-painted by one of the Clemmons daughters), just back from a ceremony where she was awarded an honorary degree in Law from the University of Vermont. Right: The front cover of the Authentica catalog (1980s), also designed by a Clemmons daughter.
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Above: A storytelling video about family block printing.
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In addition to collecting art, both Jack and Lydia created it, blending their artistic talents with their work on the family farm and their careers in medicine. Lydia was a talented seamstress, creating many of the clothes her children wore. She also hand-stenciled beautiful designs on old farm tools, and practiced the fine culinary art of Southern cooking (Louisiana gumbo is one of her specialties!). Jack began drawing and doing photography when he was a very young child, and often worked with his five children to teach them how to make creative works, including beautiful prints from carved linoleum blocks, such as those featured in this video.
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