Filed Under: "architecture"

“Oldtown,” pen and ink drawing, late 1930s, unpublished work. Oldtown (or Old Town?) is presumably a neighborhood in Cincinnati, where Flora lived at the time he rendered this drawing. We were unable to locate this community in a rudimentary search on our Google Machine. If any locals have the answer, please leave a comment below. 

Today we introduce a new limited edition fine art print called TENEMENT K, whose residents are bawdy, musical, criminal, and/or exhibitionistic. Doesn’t matter if you’re rowdy, serpentine, or headless—the landlord will rent you a room. If you were a mutant miscreant, you’d be home by now. The previously unpublished and uncirculated work, which dates from the 1940s, is owned by a private collector who allowed us to have the work professionally photographed for print reproduction….

We received a photo of this festive tableau from our good friend (and devoted Floraphile) in Japan, Takashi Okada. The greeting card, a vintage artifact ca. 1944, was purchased by Takashi from the Flora collection a few years ago. Behind the card sits a demo of Takashi’s forthcoming Raymond Scott Songbook, a 2-cd collection of rare Scott archival recordings and new cover versions by a variety of artists. Positioned to the right is a figurine…

The work isn’t titled, and there’s no specific reference to Independence Day, but this unpublished 1990s acrylic on canvas suggests celebratory patriotism and civic pride, so we’ll offer it as tribute to our nation’s founding 236 years ago today. P.S. This non sequitur works too. Illustration from The Fabulous Firework Family, Flora’s first (1955) children’s book.

Pamela Paul in the New York Times reviews Enchanted Lion Books‘ new reprint of Flora’s Kangaroo for Christmas: Kangaroo for Christmas offered joy of an entirely different sort to the Sallys and Bobbys of the Mad Men era. First published in 1962, the story of little Kathryn’s astonishing gift from her Uncle Dingo showcases the marvelous period illustration of James Flora, a giant among midcentury commercial artists. Working in riotous bursts of carnation pink and…

Those perennial favorite Jim Flora calendars are in stock for 2012. You’ve got your bug-eyed saxophonist, an Aren’t-We-Having-Fun? moon, and a manic drummer to guide you through the coming Leap Year. These are hand-printed mini-calendars measuring 10″ x 4-1/2″.  If you prefer something of greater magnitude in a maritime motif, our Sheffield Island poster-sized calendar should suit your tastes:

Friend (and WFMU colleague) Therese Mahler joined us for an archiving visit to (what we call) the “Floratorium” (Norwalk CT storage space) in September 2008. Therese poses with a 1997 acrylic on canvas entitled Queztlcoatl Returns, rendered the year before Flora’s passing. The work was first featured on this blog in January 2008 and reproduced in our third anthology, The Sweetly Diabolic Art of Jim Flora, the only Flora compendium still in print.

Spot illustration, promotional brochure for trade journal Electromechanical Design: Components and Systems, 1957. Flora illustrated a number of covers for the monthly from 1957 to 1960.

Baltimore, tempera on heavy stock, early 1960s

Salt Pond – Block Island, tempera and pencil on paper, 1963. This previously uncirculated work was first published in our 2009 anthology, The Sweetly Diabolic Art of Jim Flora (the only one of our three Flora compendiums currently in print). The work reflects Flora’s love of rustic maritime locales and things that float. Block Island, Rhode Island is located off the southern coast of the state. Wiki contains the following about the saline pond: Great…

Our latest Jim Flora limited edition fine art print launches today. We’ve dubbed the untitled, undated black and white work Rowayton Creature Tableau because of the strange figures populating the streets of this seaside Connecticut village (the artist’s adopted hometown). The previously uncirculated and unpublished pen & ink with watercolor drawing was discovered in the artist’s collection. We’ve analyzed the technique and determined that it reflects the 1970s style of caricature commonly found in Flora’s…

Pen & ink, 1992, discovered in sketchpad. Like most Flora works of the 1990s, this cityscape has never been published or publicly viewed.