Jim Flora 2012 Calendars

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:

Sheffield Island 2011 letterpress calendar

JimFlora.com is offering a new 2011 poster-sized calendar featuring a 1954 Flora woodcut illustration called SHEFFIELD ISLAND. The artwork is hand-printed letterpress in black ink on kraft card stock; a 12-month tear away calendar is attached on the bottom. When the year ends, you have a unique hand-pulled letterpress Jim Flora print suitable for framing.

The full dimensions of the card with artwork are 13-1/2" x 17". The calendars, which were hand-printed by Yee-Haw Industrial Letterpress, of Knoxville, sell for $25.00 (+ shipping) each.

Yee-Haw Industries studio tour

We're honored to have worked with the fine folks at Yee-Haw Industrial Letterpress, producing Flora limited edition woodcut prints (including the 1951 tour de force Railroad Town and the 1957 LP-sized Jugglers) and letterpress notecards and calendars.

Printmaker Brian Baker with Jugglers edition print (left) and vintage block (right)

Co-proprietors Julie Belcher and Kevin Bradley, along with the Yee-Haw staff, are committed professionals and we consider them friends. We're working with Yee-Haw on new projects, including a 2011 letterpress calendar based on a 1954 Flora woodcut entitled Sheffield Island, and more woodcut limited edition prints.

David Trawin of ThisIsProcess.com writes:

Last year I had the chance to check out the Yee-Haw Industries studio space/storefront in Knoxville. They were generous enough to give me the grand tour. Take a look.

Flor-riffic details:

Yee-Haw was fortunate to work with the estate of Jim Flora to print original block carvings made by the legendary artist. [ed.: below, Serenade, 1947; only proofs currently available]

[Kevin Bradley] showing drawers full of Jim Flora samples:

N.B. The above giclée proofs were produced by printmaker and Flora co-archivist Barbara Economon of JimFlora.com for planned fine art prints.

Flora 2010 calendars

We've sold a bunch but they're still in stock: 2010 Jim Flora calendars. The spunky hyperactive figures date from Flora's mid-1950s RCA Victor LP period. Each calendar is letterpress printed one color at a time on card stock, and accessorized with a 12-month tearaway calendar. Buy one ($12.50) or a set of three at the Little Shop of Flora's. These keepsake datekeepers were produced by Yee-Haw Industries, of Knoxville.

Jim Flora notecards

Back in stock: letterpress-printed cards with cool 1940s and '50s music and turntable illustrations by Flora. The cards were designed and printed by our friends at Yee-Haw Industrial Letterpress, in Knoxville. Packaged in sets of four: Dig You Later, Stardust Moon, Deluxe-O-Tone, and Trees.

Jim Flora 2010 calendars available

We've received no reports of malfunctioning 2009 calendars—every day has thus far been accounted for, in the correct sequence—so we're offering 2010 models, hot off Yee-Haw's industrial presses. The spunky hyperactive figures date from Flora's mid-1950s RCA Victor LP period. Each calendar is letterpress printed one color at a time on card stock, and accessorized with a 12-month tearaway calendar. Buy one ($12.50) or a set of three at the Little Shop of Flora's.

rescuing things from Google limbo

Google yourself. Discover forgotten incidents from your past—like this 2005 interview by Coury Turczyn for PopCult magazine. The occasion was the publication of The Mischievous Art of Jim Flora, and tho the interview is dotted with Flora iconography, it also touches on outsider music, record collecting, the Langley Schools Music Project, R. Stevie Moore, and Shooby Taylor, the Human Horn.

Three years later Cory wrote an incisive cover story about Flora for Knoxville's Metro Pulse.

Little Shop of Flora's

... is now open. Jim Flora hand-printed notecards, fine art bookmarks, and 2009 letterpress calendars at affordable prices.

We've also released a number of new fine art and album cover prints over the past few weeks but haven't had an opportunity to alert our mailing list. Here's two, but there's more over at JimFlora.com:

Self-Portrait, ca. 1947

Gunfight on the Roof, 1951

Jugglers edition

The Jugglers woodcut limited edition was completed last May, but we've been too preoccupied with other Flora business to release the work.

A Jugglers page has finally been posted at JimFlora.com and the first five numbered prints are now available. In the next week or two, we hope to enact an official launch. The print was produced by Bryan Baker at Yee-Haw Industrial Letterpress, Knoxville. The work appears on page 58 in The Curiously Sinister Art of Jim Flora.

This is the second 1950s Flora woodcut which we have offered in a limited edition, following Railroad Town in 2007.

Jugglers edition complete

Jugglers, a 1957 Flora woodcut, was recently editioned at Yee-Haw Industrial Letterpress, in Knoxville. The 50 prints, struck from the original artist's block, will be offered for sale by Jim Flora Art LLC in about a month. YH printed Railroad Town in 2006/2007, and plans to produce several more Flora relief prints over the next two years.

A vintage artist's print of this work was reproduced in The Curiously Sinister Art of Jim Flora.

On the menu

rew Taylor "is a sucker for a nice mutton, lettuce, and tomato sandwich." He's also keen on Jim Flora, as revealed in "Knoxville Showcases Pop Art Icon," from the March 30 issue of Vision, an arts publication of East Tennessee State University.

Jim Flora greeting cards

Now on eBay:
Spanky new from Jim Flora Art LLC and Yee-Haw Industrial Letterpress, Knoxville: three different sets of four unique cards each. The cards are hand-printed letterpress on recycled paper and come bundled with kraft envelopes in a clear sleeve. Fun to mail, funner to receive, but also klassy-kool for framing.
Above: quartet of 1955 hepcats from the "Plant You Now, Dig You Later" set. Below, the "Deluxe-O-Tone" line of retro-record players (1940s- and 1950s-era):
Here's the "Stardust" series (1954 illustrations):

Jim Flora 2008 calendars

Jim Flora Art LLC is offering three hand-printed 2008 calendars: swingin' sax, boogie-beat drummer, and starlite moon. We have a limited number (30 each) to sell. That's it. It's not a numbered edition — 500 backing cards each were printed by Yee-Haw Industries (Knoxville), but due to scheduling demands, the production team could only finish a few hundred calendars for retail boutiques. JFA LLC received 30 sets for our customers.

Sales are first-come, first-served. Each calendar costs $12.50 + s/h (see below). We accept checks and PayPal (info@JimFlora.com).

The backing cards are letterpress printed on recycled stock, measuring 10" x 4-1/2". The attached calendar, with 12 pull-off pages, measures 3-1/4" x 4-1/2". The Jim Flora illustrations date from the mid-1950s. Those little flyspecks you see around the images are a natural byproduct of the hand-printing process.

These cards have been distributed by Yee-Haw to select boutiques, but we don't have a list. One difference: unlike the cards sold in shops, our small stock has been authenticated on the back with the Jim Flora Art LLC seal. Instant collectible. And useful: it contains ALL 12 of your FAVORITE MONTHS, in correct sequence (four years ahead of schedule)! Guaranteed to include YOUR BIRTHDAY as well as those of your family and friends, or your money back! Pin-up hole included at no extra charge!

With the balance of the print run, Yee-Haw will produce the same line in 2009. But if you can't wait, we've got a handful. There's no limit per customer, while supplies last.

UPDATE (10/24): We are no longer accepting orders via the blog. The remaining stock is available thru a 10-day Buy-It-Now auction on eBay, after which the item will be listed in the Jim Flora Art eBay store.

Railroad Town release party!

We've compiled a Railroad Town info page at JimFlora.com, commemorating the print's official "launch." If you're curious to learn more about this 1951 Flora masterwork (detail at right) which can now be purchased as a numbered, limited edition relief print, visit Railroad Town Central.

Besides the new edition of 50, there are a small number of proofs available in varying ink colors and papers (info on the RRT page).

The current block of five released prints (#41-45) is priced at $700 each.

UPDATE (July 20): The #41-45 block is sold out. We are now releasing #26-30 at $750 each.

UPDATE (July 21): One print sold of #26-30 block; four remain.

P.S. If you're in Hoboken, stop by Right Angle Framing at 320 Washington Street (bet. 3rd and 4th). A Railroad Town proof, elegantly framed by the shop's Pablo Godoy, is on exhibit in their window. And it's for sale — ask Pablo.

Railroad Town (edition)

Production is complete:

Flora carved Railroad Town in 1951 while living in Taxco. The trial proof relief print above was produced in December 2006. The June 2007 numbered edition (of 50), just completed at Yee-Haw Industrial Letterpress in Knoxville, is even better (alas, no photo yet). Most of the "saltiness" (white flecking) visible above in the peripheries has been eliminated by printmaker Bryan Baker. The impression is solid—and stunning.

The longer I stare at the details of this woodcut (click on image to enlarge), the more I'm convinced this is one of Flora's definitive masterpieces. Every quirk and every nuance is evident: music, architecture, dogs, and trains; wild contours and interlocking figures; degenerate behavior, multi-tiered cutaways, and unfathomable anatomy. It's a graphic traffic jam. As Flora once confessed, "I could never stand a static space."

The edition, struck from the original artist's block, features black ink on 280g archival-quality Rives BFK cream. The block measures 11" x 22-1/4", and the full print (with border, not shown above) measures 18-3/4" x 30". Each print is hand-titled and numbered, and authenticated in letterpress type (also not shown above).

We are releasing five unframed prints (#46-50) from the edition at $600 each (plus s/h; PayPal accepted). After those are sold, we will release a second block of five at $700 each. For subsequent releases, prices will increase as stock is depleted. We hope to offer these prints for sale officially by late July. If you want to get a jump on the market, email us. No one reads blogs anymore. If you've gotten this far, you're an insider.

UPDATE (14 JUL 07): First block of five quickly sold out. We have released prints #41-45 at $700 each.

Railroad Town (relief print)

click for panoramic magnificence

Flora created the woodcut RAILROAD TOWN in 1951, during his 15-month family sojourn in Mexico. It's a manic mural, crammed with sinister figures interlocking like rune-shaped brickwork. Pictured above is a 2007 relief print, with black ink on 280g archival-quality Rives BFK cream. The block measures 11" x 22-1/4", and the full print (with border) measures 18-3/4" x 30". Working with Yee-Haw Industrial Letterpress of Knoxville, we will produce a limited numbered edition of 50, which should be on the market by late Spring 07. In the meantime, we have a few limited edition, numbered and authenticated 2006 proofs to sell (in various ink colors on two different papers).

Does "proof" mean "not as good"? No, it means an earlier run, in different colors, on different paper, in a VERY limited edition. In other words, just as good, but more rare. Drop us an email to inquire about pricing, or to pre-order 2007 edition prints.

Railroad Town (detail 1)

This is a print detail of Railroad Town, a 1951 Jim Flora woodcut. What you see above is approximately one-tenth of the entire 11" x 22.5" work. The rest is equally outrageous.

Barbara and I just returned from Knoxville, where we oversaw proofs for numbered, archival-quality limited edition relief prints of this iconic Flora work. All prints are restruck from the original Flora-cut block, and the edition will be produced by Yee-Haw Industrial Letterpress. Prints should be available in late Spring '07. More details forthcoming. And yes, we will post the entire Railroad Town panorama shortly.