odyssey of a drug

Feature illustration, "A Long-Playing Medicine"
LIFE magazine, June 10, 1957

Love Is Like Park Avenue

Flora rendered the above woodcut for the cover of a collection of short stories by Alvin Frederick Levin, published by Little Man Press in 1940. New Directions Books has just issued Love Is Like Park Avenue, Levin's "unfinished novel," which includes the "Little Alvin" vignettes and a reproduction of Flora's woodcut.

You've probably never heard of Alvin Levin. Neither had we. The intriguing rediscovery of Levin is chronicled by New Directions Senior Editor Declan Spring at The Front Table.

The wonderful Flora woodcut, like so many of the artist's early cuts, cannot be located.

rural electrification

Spot illo, "New Competition for G.E.," a brief 1953 article about Continental Electric Equipment Co. of Kentucky.

cordial claws

Anthropomorphic lobsters from sketchbook, pencil and crayon, early 1960s. Intended project unknown.

Miff Mole's Cat

Acrylic on canvas, 1992. Irving Milfred "Miff" Mole was a legendary American jazz trombonist who first came to prominence in 1920s hot jazz. Tommy Dorsey called him "the Babe Ruth of the trombone."

Amid the painting's colorful details, pay special attention to this great freakin' tree:

Celebrities

Celebrities, pen & ink, early 1990s, from sketchbook

Update: Issued as an open edition fine art print in 2010.

Washed

Our third series of Primer for Prophets screen prints are in production, and should be ready for market by early October. "W" is among the featured letters. For more information, click on the "Primer for Prophets" tag at the bottom to see previous posts. The series is being produced by our friends at Aesthetic Apparatus, of Minneapolis.

Series 1: Ate, Drove, Jived, and Smoked.

Series 2: Cooked, Groomed, Kissed, and Quaffed.

aspects (typography)

Flora loved experimenting with hand-typography throughout his career, from the 1930s to the 1990s. (Click on tag below to see previous examples.) He occasionally created anthropomorphic letters. The above detail derives from an undated 1990s-era painting entitled The Many Aspects of Love. The large-scale tempera is a lower-tier work reflecting Flora's libidinous streak with cartoonish figures, a recurring theme which usually makes us cringe. However, the lettering of each word in the tableau demonstrates Flora's playful approach to the alphabet. We'll publish the other words in subsequent posts.

Sweetly Diabolic: a review

Rave review for Sweetly Diabolic from Joe Bendel of J.B. Spins.

"Chusid and Economon once again prove to be wise stewards of the Flora archives. Sweetly Diabolic reveals many largely unknown aspects of his work, but also fruitfully revisits his classic Columbia-era work. Thanks to the quality of the reproductions and design of the book itself, the vitality of Flora’s art comes through on each page. An effective introduction to Flora’s art and a satisfying crowd-pleaser for his established fans, Diabolic is another richly entertaining treasury of Flora’s 'baroque and subversive' art."

Joe gave an equally glowing assessment of our previous book, The Curiously Sinister Art of Jim Flora.

If you discover other reviews of our new book, please drop us a note.