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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LAKE COUNTY DISCOVERY MUSEUM TO HOST “THE MISCHIEVOUS ART OF JIM FLORA” EXHIBIT
APRIL 4 to AUGUST 31, 2008
Illinois museum to showcase original works, fine art giclées, woodcut relief prints, record covers, music ephemera, and Little Man Press artifacts. Flora books, prints and merchandise will be on sale. JIM FLORA MEETS RAYMOND SCOTT
Extending Flora's album cover legacy into the 21st century, a new CD graced with a wild 1951 Flora illustration has been released. The CD, entitled Ectoplasm, features rare and unreleased recordings by Raymond Scott's 1948-'49 Quintet. The cover was co-designed by masterful Dutch art director Piet Schreuders and Flora archivist Irwin Chusid, who produced the CD. The album was released by Basta Audio-Visuals, who are considering a limited edition vinyl LP for Flora fans later this year. Available online through Amazon.com.

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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.

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.




FINE ART PRINT
LTD. EDITION RELEASE
Jim Flora Art LLC has produced a limited edition print of a 1943 tempera painting of a colorful jazz quintet. The edition of ten, meticulously color-matched to the original, is the earliest Flora work we have offered as a fine art print.





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.




PRIMER FOR PROPHETS FINE ART PRINTS
FLORA ALPHABET SERIES LAUNCHED
Now available as silk-screen prints: cool Flora illustrations of the American nuclear family (and their weird pets) during the 1950s, when people had fried-egg eyes, dog food tins were edible, and teens grew bonus legs! The images derive from a 1954 trade-only alphabet booklet that Flora illustrated for CBS-TV. The first four prints are "ATE," "DROVE," "JIVED," and "SMOKED." Available as single prints or as a SET. Only 100 of each produced, each hand-numbered and authenticated.