Description
JimFlora.com offers limited edition relief prints struck from a well-preserved 1957 Flora woodcut. JUGGLERS depicts a surrealistic circus tableau carved on a solid inch-thick block of wood. The work was created shortly after the end of Flora’s three-year tenure (1954-1956) illustrating LP covers for RCA Victor. Although there is no indication Flora intended the work for an album cover, the image roughly conforms to foot-square LP dimensions.
Flora studied wood engraving, copper etching, lithography, and other processes at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, which he attended from 1935 to 1939. He produced dozens of woodcuts throughout the 1940s and 1950s. A few were commercial assignments, but most were undertaken as fine art works. Only a handful of original blocks (such as Railroad Town) remain in the Flora family archive.
EDITION SPECS
The May 2008 numbered edition of 50 was produced by printmaker Bryan Baker at Yee-Haw Industrial Letterpress, Knoxville. Each impression is deep and cleanly articulated.
The JUGGLERS edition, struck from the artist’s original block, was produced with black ink on 280g archival-quality Rives BFK cream. The block measures 11-1/2″ square, and the full print (with border, larger than shown) measures 15″ x 15″. Each print is hand-titled and numbered at the lower corners, and is authenticated in letterpress type (see detail below) in the bottom center with a stamped, dated seal indicating Jim Flora Art LLC (a Flora family enterprise) and Yee-Haw Industrial Letterpress.
Prices increase for prints as stock depletes.
The prints are packaged in a clear sleeve with an acid-free backing sheet, and are shipped flat.
WOODCUT ARTIFACTS
Great effort is made to ensure the quality and craftsmanship of each impression. Given the organic nature of the printing process, small spots or specks are often present. However, such minute imperfections are common, do not detract or distract from the image itself, and give each print unique characteristics. Production is quality-controlled: only first-rate prints are approved for the edition; flawed prints are destroyed.
