Art Clokey (born 1921) is a pioneer in the popularization of claymation, beginning in the 1950s 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 actually became the home of his most famous character, Gumby. Beginning in the late '50s, Gumby has since been a ubiquitous presence on television, appearing in several series -- and even in a 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." 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).