Friday, November 30, 2007

Happy Horns t-shirt

Jim Flora Art LLC just launched the latest in our line of upper body haute couture: the Jim Flora "Happy Horns" t-shirt. The illustration—a jazz buff making cozy with a clarinet and sax—originally appeared on a 1942 record shop retail banner showcasing "Columbia Album Favorites." Our previous shirts were digitally printed. The "Horn Buddies" shirt is our first silk-screened piece of fashionwear.

We also modified a previous shirt: the "Hot Notes" design (featuring a 1941 department store illustration), previously produced on white cotton, is now available in gray as well.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Primer for Prophets prints now on eBay

The long-awaited series of fine-art screen prints PRIMER FOR PROPHETS are now available on eBay. Very 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!

Subtitled "A Flora '50s A-B-C," the images derive from a 1954 trade-only alphabet booklet titled Primer for Prophets that Flora illustrated for CBS-TV. The booklet was not circulated to the public, but was intended to attract corporate advertisers to the emerging medium of television. Each page featured iconic Flora illustrations of past-tense verbs (A to Z) that reflected daily activities of the typical American family, suggesting products they would purchase.

The first four prints produced are "ATE," "DROVE," "JIVED," and "SMOKED." They are available as single prints or as a set.

The PRIMER series was produced in a limited edition of 100 by Minneapolis screen studio Aesthetic Apparatus. Production specs are detailed in the eBay listings. Each print is hand-numbered and authenticated.

Over the next few years, we'll extend the series to cover the entire alphabet. The PRIMER illustrations reflect Flora at his post-war commercial peak. That same year, he began illustrating RCA Victor album covers, creating some of his most popular images (such as Mambo for Cats). The PRIMER characters are consistent with the best of his RCA album sleeves.

NOTE: The 10-day eBay listings for these prints have expired, but the prints are now available through JimFlora.com. The above links go directly to the individual print pages on the site.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

fragmented violinist

untitled illustration, business card, 1950s

Monday, November 19, 2007

critter chemistry

Detail, Grand Opening Migraine, a.k.a., Behind the Green Door
(both titles penciled on reverse)
painting, ca. 1974

Friday, November 9, 2007

Organizational Quotient

Compiling a resumé?

Illustration, Research & Engineering, April 1956

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Waltz Time

Waltz Time, pen and ink on card stock
n/d (early 1990s), titled in pencil