Jim Flora - Weird Jazzy

In the 1940s and '50s, James (Jim) Flora designed dozens of diabolic cover illustrations, many for Columbia and RCA Victor jazz artists. His world pulsed with angular hepcats bearing funnel-tapered noses and shark-fin chins, who fingered cockeyed pianos and honked lollipop-hued horns. Flora continued painting, illustrating, and making woodcuts and prints until his death in July 1998. The work from his later decades displays a fascination with marine life -- especially boats, steamships, and harbors. A secondary artistic theme was his passion for Mexico (where he and his family lived in 1950 and '51), including that country's architecture, festive traditions, and savory culture.