Filed Under: "Floraphiles"

Another vintage Flora illustration adorns a record cover: Charles Wuorinen‘s Duos CD (Albany Records, January 2009 scheduled release). The untitled tempera of pink, green, and brown criss-crossing pedestrians dates from the early 1960s. The CD joins a growing gallery of new releases carrying the Flora album cover tradition into the 21st century. Thanks to Howard Stokar, executive producer of the CD, for requesting the cover image. Update (Jan. 12): CD now available.

A number of Floraphiles have alerted us to a new US Postal Service stamp commemorating Latin Jazz (issued September 8, 2008). They assert that: 1) the artist is, to put it kindly, “imitating Flora,” or 2) Flora himself designed the stamp. The stamp was illustrated by Michael Bartalos, a talented artist who would not deny a Flora influence — in fact, he was friends with Jim. Arguably it is Bartalos to whom we owe the…

Flora and WFMU: a sustaining relationship

Our friend Takashi Okada of Tokyo has become the pre-eminent Floraphile in Japan. Besides being an avid customer of Jim Flora fine art prints, Takashi recently designed the Daisy Holiday CD package, which adapts Flora’s 1947 Green Mansions resort brochure illustration (licensed from the Flora estate). Additional Flora elements appear on the jewel case inlay and in the booklet. Here’s a Tokyo record store display flush with Flora. If you don’t live in that part…

This is a test. Go here. In the green menu at the left, click “request a song.” Select a letter (or a number) at the top — any one. Select an artist — any artist. One you know, one you don’t — it’s just a drill. (Caveat: a band whose name begins with “The” appears under “T.” Hence, there are more “T” artists than any other letter.) Click on album title (not cover thumbnail). Request…

The new CD by Seattle’s Reptet, Chicken or Beef? (Monktail Records), adapts elements of Flora woodcuts from Murderpie, a 1939 Little Man Press chapbook. The package—which includes additional Flora imagery on the back and inner disc sleeve—was designed by Jeffrey Huston and Reptet drummer John Ewing. The original typography replicates Flora lettering. This is the second release by Reptet to feature Flora imagery. Their 2005 Do This! was emblazoned with a critter we call a…

Extending the Flora album cover tradition, contemporary designers have been licensing Jim Flora images for CDs. At JimFlora.com, we’ve launched a gallery of recent digital releases that have been Floradized. Interested in using Flora art for your CD? Just ask.

Flora-related stuff on the web: Dan Pearson of the Pioneer-Press (Illinois) reviews the Lake County Discovery Museum‘s exhibit: “Flora’s Art is Full of Fun.” Story includes interviews with LCDM’s Steve Furnet and your Florablogger. “Scribbler,” based in San Antonio, blogs about Vintage Books My Kid Loves, including Flora’s Kangaroo for Christmas and Grandpa’s Farm. Flora illustratrations for “Will Robots Make People Obsolete?” Parade Magazine, 1959, posted at the Paleo-Future blog. And download some Flora WFMU…

Ruth Seidler, of Brooklyn’s JollyBe Bakery: “Devils food cake with hazelnut dacquoise and chocolate/hazelnut buttercream. Design inspired by the 1960’s [sic] jazz record jacket designs of Jim Flora.”

Since early 2006, Jim Flora Art has partnered with a hip Minneapolis screen printing shop called Aesthetic Apparatus. Dan Ibarra and Mike Byzewski of AA first produced a Mambo For Cats edition of 200, then a Pete Jolly Duo edition of 125. Both prints featured classic Flora 1955 RCA Victor LP covers. A month ago we launched the Primer for Prophets series. JFA didn’t just hire these guys off a Google search—besides their meticulousness and…

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…