Art Clokey
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Art Clokey (born 1921) is a pioneer in the popularization of claymation, beginning in 1955 with a film experiment called Gumbasia, influenced by his professor Slakvo Vorkapich at the University of Southern California (known colloquially as USC Film School). Clokey received his undergraduate degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. The aesthetic environment became the home of his most famous character, Gumby. Beginning in 1956, Gumby has since been a ubiquitous presence on television, appearing in several series—and even in a 1995 feature film, Gumby: The Movie. Clokey's second most famous producion is the duo of Davey and Goliath, funded by the Lutheran Church.
What is not widely known is that Art Clokey also made a few highly experimental and visually inventive short clay animation films which have nothing to do with a children's demographic. Not only his first film Gumbasia, but also the visually-rich Mandala—described by Clokey as a metaphor for evolving human consciousness—and the equally bizarre The Clay Peacock, an elaboration on the animated NBC logo of the time. These films have only recently become available via the Rhino box-set release of Gumby's television shorts, all appearing on the bonus DVD (disc 7).