October 12 was Art Clokey's birthday. Let's dip back into the 50's and take another look at the claymation pioneer's earliest work...
Screenshot from Youtube
Art Clokey was a pioneer in stop motion claymation (clay animation). He is popularly known as the creator of the animated shows Gumby and Davey and Goliath. The idea of the shows came from an experimental short film Clokey made in 1955 called Gumbasia. Here’s the video:
The 3 minute surreal short film was made by Clokey while he was a student at University of Southern California. Gumbasia’s style was influenced by his professor Slavko Vorkapić who taught him the Kinesthetic Film Principles. Clokey’s works later became cultural and influential icons.
Screenshot from nydailynews.com
October 12, 2011 would have been his 90th birthday. And as a homage to the master claymator, Google changed their homepage logo to an interactive Google doodle logo using characters from Gumby.
Stop motion animations, Super 8 clips & films, and other videos with analogue vibe are part of this month’s requested posts. Click on the link to see what you can contribute to the magazine.
4 comments
blue-dog
Nice find..I got a few pictures of Gumby's brother and Elvis on Gumby's 50th birthday
http://www.lomograph(…)by/1/953237
http://www.lomograph(…)by/1/955376
blue-dog
Back in the day, ( late 79- 80s) I was involved in a project with Gumby and talked with Art Clokey by letters and phone conversations about the project.
lawypop
i luv gumby!
domo-guy
RESPECT.