| "I think of Flora as the Picasso of Jazz; his other-worldly depictions of Jazz musicians capture perfectly the vibe of a certain era of the music—brash, swingin' and full of ecstatic movement. There's another side to Flora as well. If you look closely at his LP illustrations, beyond the exciting flash, you see a cunning method to his cartoonish madness." |
I wrote the above on my Jim Flora post on my old website Claytonology, and as I reread it today, I'm pleased by the passion that I had when I wrote it. You see, I had just rediscovered his charismatic work; a friend had purchased one of his albums (Inside Sauter-Finegan), and the crispness of the image had popped me in the face. I was reinvigorated! I was a big record collector in my younger days (until I had to move them several times), and wherever one goes in pursuit of the LP, Jim Flora will be waiting, with a humble, yet wry smile, and any one of a multitude of fantastic cover illustrations. I nabbed all that I could.
Flora has inspired a generation of bedazzled imitators; smiling, post-modern, energetic hipsters with artist's tools in hand, paying homage to the master, and no wonder, too; when it comes to post-modernity in popular musical illustration, there is nobody who can lay a greater claim to the throne. He was the benchmark for the the album era, and a reminder, by way of an LP epitaph, that popular culture can also be high art, and that creativity can (and should) be above all else. In the current environment, where derivation and superficial pastiche are the law of the land, we need people like Jim Flora more than ever.
Flora has inspired a generation of bedazzled imitators; smiling, post-modern, energetic hipsters with artist's tools in hand, paying homage to the master, and no wonder, too; when it comes to post-modernity in popular musical illustration, there is nobody who can lay a greater claim to the throne. He was the benchmark for the the album era, and a reminder, by way of an LP epitaph, that popular culture can also be high art, and that creativity can (and should) be above all else. In the current environment, where derivation and superficial pastiche are the law of the land, we need people like Jim Flora more than ever.
(click image to enlarge, then use the arrow keys ← → to change images )
Special thanks to the folk at JimFlora.com for permission to use these great images! Go and visit them HERE!
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