© Raun Craig Productions

DEDICATION This work is dedicated to my loving husband, Christopher Craig who with perseverance traveled 24,000 miles so I could study computer graphics and filmmaking. The digital movie coming soon!

BUT the real purpose of this movie, since it is a fine art work was to express the personal story of my Christian rebirth. Since the experience was a slow awakening rather than a dynamic emotional event, the film is a journey which continues slowly and steadily. Since the Israelites' Exodus from Egypt can be viewed as an allegorical story of a Christian's departure from slavery and death into a life of freedom, culturally significant patterns of the Egyptian lotus and the Tibetan symbol of the eternal knot symbolize my journey. At the beginning the Egyptian lotus are seen as a static wallpaper pattern, lifeless and in dark values. Slowly the lotus stem grows in darkness and, through touching, awakens a nearby lotus flower. Mysteriously, the large leaf and stems transform into beautifully pastel shapes and slowly glide across the screen, finally disappearing. The static 2-dimensional wallpaper pattern dissolves into a free flowing dance movement on a flat plane - identifying with the warm-blooded world as the background changes from darkness to a warm colors. With the arrival of the eternal knot, there is more life and energy expressed on the screen. The eternal knot twirls and tumbles freely - reminding the viewer of butterflies. The butterfly is a symbol of new life and resurrection. Because of the singularity of this object, it creates a feeling of empathy and reference to the self. Towards the end of the film, the sharp and stylized stems rotate in an elliptical orbit. This animation was intended to create an image of the crown of thorns that was worn by Jesus Christ. References to resurrection imagery are multiplied through this crown of thorns which becomes a joyful reminder of Christ's death and resurrection. Technical Notes: This movie was originally for my MFA thesis project at the University of Oregon in 1986, so it's a little rough around the edges. At the time, it was using emerging technology (well, emerging sounds better than home-grown and it was not high-end). I used a Vectrix VX 384 computer in combination with a IBM PC AT computer to generate the film images. In order to film it to 35mm film (yes, there was no option for digital imaging yet), I used, obviously a 35mm animation camera. The only problem is that due to the complexity of the images and speed (or lack thereof) of the computers, it would take approximately 2 weeks to generate the images. So, with the help of Craig Hickman, I was able to use his program to detect when the IBM PC AT had completed the drawing for the next screen. A photocell was attached to the IBM PC AT computer and when the image was completely drawn on the Vectrix computer, a series of small blocks were drawn on the IBM PC AT's screen to form a small box of light. A photocell sensor was attached to the IBM PC AT screen and when that box of light was drawn, the sensor would detect light and send a message to the APPLE IIe computer. This message started a subroutine that sent a message to the 35mm animation camera to shoot a frame and then advance one frame. Whew!