And in the most recent short, Deirdre's Choice, a girl child still in the womb is Druid-predicted to be trouble for the King. To show his might over even the Fates, the King decrees that when the girl grows up he will take her for his own. But, when Deirdre comes of age, she falls in love and escapes with her lover on a long pilgrimage through distant lands. They are finally discovered by the King who has the lad slain. Deirdre becomes the King's woman, but to show her power over even his authority, she takes her own life.

Deirdre's choice © Paint-On-Film Animation by Rose Bond.

Something Magical, Something Eternal
Each film depicts a struggle for the right to "be," for the right to live freely, for the ultimate power that is in every woman, and every man, to stand on equal ground and declare, "In me is something magical, something eternal." Bond declared just such a right in her own life by steadfastly allowing herself the privilege to grow as an artist.

In college she had struggled with art. Her creative passions ran deep, but she found no mentor to guide her through the reality of becoming a professional so she set her art aside.

"I was very disenchanted with college. I had no role models. It seemed that the only way to succeed as an artist was to be an academic. I simply didn't understand how a career in art worked. It wasn't until my late twenties when I took an animation night course at NorthWest Film Center that discovered where drawing could go."

Even though she was working a full-time job as an educational administrator, she began to work at night on her animated films. Finally the urge to fill in her own gaps of knowledge as a filmmaker led her to follow her heart and return to school. She took a leave without pay and attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago to complete her MFA. As she says, "myart was calling." At Art School she finished Macha and created a film installation called The Peep Show at the Name Gallery.

Says Bond, The Peep Show was a take off on the porno booth where you step in a small dark room, put in your quarter and see a show. In a three minute cycle, she animates from A New View of a Women's Body--presenting a revolutionary view on the female sexual arousal with the cycled engorgement of an intricate maze of tissues and capillaries; an interior felt but never seen.

35mm Film frames from Mallacht Macha (Macha's Curse) © Paint-On-Film Animation by Rose Bond, 1990.

After graduation, Bond returned to her work with the Portland Public Schools, but added the role of animation instructor at Northwest Film Center to her list of professional duties. Today, Bond takes a very avant-garde approach to her classwork, teaching students the basics of squash and stretch, but asking them to apply this knowledge to non-traditional forms of animation. Bond, a "direct" animator, encourages experimentation in all forms, including work with computers.

Says Bond, "I create my animation in flipbooks, then ink each page directly onto clear film leader. After I ink the whole film, and I usually have very little cutting, I end up with a big roll of about 400 feet with frame lines marked on it. Then I color it. I never project that, I just take it straight to the lab which prints each frame two to three times [Bond animates at 12 frames per second] and that becomes the master. To ink, I use a mixture of pens and watercolors. There's a type of German pen I like as well and then I use on alcohol base dye for my warm palette."

But, Bond is now interested in trying her painterly animation process on the computer. She is dabbling with Fractal Design's Painter software, which allows for the look and feel of a real painter's toolset within the digital format. In a sense the computer seems to fit with the new era of work Bond hopes to move in to.

"No more trilogies," she says. "I'm at a period of my life where I'm reconsidering where I'm going with my personal work. My inclination is to go back away from story. Not exactly pure visual poetry, but something more experimental, something that leaves an impression."

And knowing Bond, that impression is sure to be "lasting."

Rita Street, the founder of Women in Animation and former editor and publisher of Animation Magazine, is now a freelance writer based in Los Angeles.