Illustration, “Human Engineering: Tailoring the Machine to the Man” Research and Engineering magazine, February 1956

Floraphile Shannon Wade, of Portland, isn’t content to admire Flora art in books, on album covers, or displayed on walls. It’s not enough for her to wear it. She wants to BE it. Shannon combined elements from two of Flora’s more well-known album cover illustrations—the Pete Jolly Duo and Mambo for Cats—into some nifty skin art. Design-in-progress (at right), with color added (below). Shannon writes: “This was my first tattoo, and it was done in…

… “Jim Flora” exact phrase search result. And maybe the only time this blog will have one degree of separation from Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Flora was a failed architecture student. He had to forego a scholarship to the Boston Architectural League in 1933 due to Depression-era financial constraints—he was too tired to attend classes after shifts as a busboy. (“I earned seven dollars a week plus meals and had to work the entire day—breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This meant that I could not attend classes. Late in October the school said they could no longer hold my scholarship open.”)…

Fantagraphics has posted photos from the September 22 opening of the Flora exhibit. So has Ward Jenkins. (Who also journals.) And David Lasky. The exhibit runs through October 24. (Note: Flora co-archivist Barbara Economon could not attend the opening due to a family emergency.)

Esquire magazine, September 1954

The cover of the Weekly, anyway (print edition, September 19-25 issue), in conjunction with the just-opened exhibition at Fantagraphics Bookstore/Gallery. The illustration is a detail from Flora’s 1954 RCA Victor LP cover Shorty Rogers Courts the Count. The Weekly’s Fall Arts section includes this nifty Flora cavalcade and a dozen interior spot placements:

Long overdue. Sorry. Not that anyone was expecting apologies. Please visit. Lots of new content: 63rd Street fine art print page; Fantagraphics Gallery exhibit poster; more LP covers that are commonly mistaken for Flora designs; and a progress report on the Primer for Prophets series. The Railroad Town page has been updated. We also corrected typos, fixed broken links, and rearranged the furniture. You almost wouldn’t recognize the place, except that it’s still populated with…

Pencil sketch, ca. 1988-1991. Purpose unknown, but presumably an invitation to some festiveness at the Flora home. Coincidentally, the above date marks the opening reception for our Jim Flora exhibit at the Fantagraphics Bookstore/Gallery. If you’re in Seattle on that date, you’re invited! Exhibit runs thru October 24 and features original paintings, fine art prints, woodcut relief prints, record covers, music ephemera, and Little Man Press artifacts.

“My days were peaceful and sheltered, my time generously idled away on pleasantries of no consequence—until Flora entered my life.”