Clyde Dixon Connell (1901-1998) - Find a Grave Memorial

Sculptress, primitive artist and civil rights advocate. Featured in People magazine and on PBS and was the subject of at least two books. Her works were featured in the show "Different Drummers" at the Hirschhorn Museum of Art at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., and in the "The Dream of Egypt" at the Centro Cutural/Arte Contemporaneo in Mexico City. The state of Louisiana declared her a "state treasure" in 1998. She blended wood carving and mixed media, and over the course of years developed a style of crafting almost architectural forms that echoed primitive totems. She fashioned art from wood on the Caddo Parish Penal Farm that her husband, T.D. Connell, administered, and created woodcut portraits of the prisoners, often giving these to her subjects. By the 1970s, her primitive but gentle sculptures and wall hangings were sought by collectors and praised by critics across the country and abroad. Her moss-shaded house on the shores of Lake Bistineau was a magnet for art students and professional artists alike. Pieces in major galleries and museums across the world are mainly from her "Totems" and "Habitats" series, but she also created "Swamp Songs," two-dimensional works with rune-like inscriptions. Daughter of a plantation owner from Belcher in rural Caddo Parish, named after the River Clyde in Scotland.

Bio by: John Andrew Prime