ames (Jim) Flora is best-known for his wild jazz and classical album covers for Columbia Records (late 1940s) and RCA Victor (1950s). He authored and illustrated 17 popular children's books and flourished for decades as a magazine illustrator. Few realize, however, that Flora was also a prolific fine artist with a devilish sense of humor and a flair for juxtaposing playfulness, absurdity and violence.

Cute — and deadly.

[ Read More ] Flora's album covers pulsed with angular hepcats bearing funnel-tapered noses and shark-fin chins who fingered cockeyed pianos and honked lollipop-hued horns. Yet this childlike exuberance was subverted by a tinge of the diabolic. Flora wreaked havoc with the laws of physics, conjuring flying musicians, levitating instruments, and wobbly dimensional perspectives.

Taking liberties with human anatomy, he drew bonded bodies and misshapen heads, while inking ghoulish skin tints and grafting mutant appendages. He was not averse to pigmenting jazz legends Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa like bedspread patterns. On some Flora figures, three legs and five arms were standard equipment, with spare eyeballs optional. His rarely seen fine artworks reflect the same comic yet disturbing qualities. "He was a monster," said artist and Floraphile JD King. So were many of his creations.

JimFlora.com exhibits samples of Flora's fine art, commercial assignments, sketches, prints, books, and memorabilia. Our goal is to bring Flora's work to renewed prominence. We have published two anthologies of Flora art, and several more are planned. Working with the Flora family we are producing and marketing prints (in several formats) of the artist's idiosyncratic images. Flora spread paint on paper. We're spreading Flora over the planet.

Jim Flora once said that all he wanted to do was "create a little piece of excitement." He overshot his goal with much of his work.

[ Click to hide Florabio ]

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FADED LINE CLOTHING CO. LAUNCHES FLORA APPAREL LINE
The Colorado-based Faded Line Clothing Co. has produced a line of Jim Flora casual chest-wear: four different Flora images printed on sixteen shirts (and an infant's onesie). This snug armor can be scored with a few mouse-clicks at the Faded Line site. FLORA ALBUM COVER
FINE ART PRINTS
We recently introduced two vintage Jim Flora RCA Victor LP cover illustrations to our print catalog: Lord Buckley's 1955 Hipsters, Flipsters, and Finger-Poppin' Daddies, and an uncirculated 1954 draft, The Incredible Flutist. Both are available as limited edition, numbered and authenticated fine art prints.

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THE CURIOUSLY SINISTER ART OF JIM FLORA
By Irwin Chusid and Barbara Economon. Designed by Laura Lindgren. Published by Fantagraphics Books, February 2007. THE MISCHIEVOUS ART OF JIM FLORA
By Irwin Chusid. Image Restorations by Barbara Economon. Designed by Laura Lindgren. Published by Fantagraphics Books, October 2004; second edition (revised) February 2007.

PRIMER FOR PROPHETS SCREEN PRINTS
FLORA ALPHABET SERIES CONTINUES
NOW AVAILABLE: the next four prints in the Primer for Prophets silk-screen series. Cool Flora illustrations of the American nuclear family (and their weird pets) during the 1950s, when donuts and cake were considered essential nutrients, little girls could multi-task with brushes, and dogs craved beer!

The images derive from a 1954 trade-only alphabet booklet that Flora illustrated for CBS-TV. The second set of prints features KISSED, COOKED, GROOMED, and QUAFFED. Edition of 100 (each image), hand-numbered and authenticated. Also available as a FULL SET.

The first four prints ("ATE," "DROVE," "JIVED," and "SMOKED") are still available as single prints or as a SET.

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NEW FINE ART PRINT of 1963 JIM FLORA PAINTING
Limited edition fine art prints of a vintage Jim Flora tempera entitled Back to Bellefontaine are now available. The title refers to the Ohio town where Flora was born in 1914.

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LIMITED EDITION 2007 RELIEF PRINTS
OF 1951 FLORA WOODCUT NOW AVAILABLE
Jim Flora Art LLC offers limited edition relief prints struck from an intricate and well-preserved original Flora woodcut depicting a sinister and manic panorama.