Knoxville’s Weekly Voice • January 17, 2008 • Volume 18 #03 By Coury Turczyn

YEE-HAW Industries help resurrect the long-lost artworks of Jim Flora, the original pop-surrealist Detail from “Railroad Town,” 1951, a print made at Yee-Haw Industries of a Jim Flora woodcut once thought to be lost 1951, a print made at Yee-Haw Town,” “Railroad Detail from

18 Metro Pulse January 17, 2008 PAINSTAKING DETAIL: Yee-Haw’s Bryan Baker prepares two Jim Flora woodcuts for printing. “They all had a strange problem I couldn’t even wrap my head around at first.”

s far as blocks of wood go, this printmaker charged with creating probably hasn’t been printed in half rwin Chusid describes himself as one is extraordinary. Perhaps a new edition from the woodcut. “In a century. Disaster could be just one a “landmark preservationist,” a A a lifetime ago it had humble all the other studios I’ve worked in, print away. I trade he fell into by virtue of his beginnings as, say, a leftover piece of I’ve never seen another block carved “As soon as I saw it, I was floored, fascination with discarded pieces of scrap from a long-forgotten carpentry this way. The depth is really strange, but I was also really scared—what pop culture—and his ability to re- project; it probably should’ve ended and the angles at happens if some- package them for modern audiences. up in somebody’s fireplace. But now which he would thing goes wrong He’s the fellow who resuscitated the it is handled with the care and rever- hold his knife are while we’re career of space-age pop bandleader ence normally reserved for ancient really unique. It’s printing it, and Esquivel in the ’90s with a compila- artifacts of lost civilizations. And so pristine and so the block cracks?” tion CD. He also wrote the book on perhaps it is just that. accurate, it’s on Baker recalls. “I “,” celebrating the At first glance, it doesn’t look like a mad-scientist was more careful efforts of untraditional musicians— much: a wood board about the size of level.” than I’ve ever those without formal training, or an old movie-theater window card. Even Yee-Haw been before with (some would say) musical talent. The worn plank has the dark patina co-owner Kevin any block in the Chusid’s offbeat discoveries have of age, as if it had been baking in Bradley, whose proofing process. won fans, and even sales, as with The someone’s attic for a long, long time. own woodcuts We started with Langley Schools Music Project, a col- One side is perfectly unremarkable. have defined the roller really lection of rock songs by a 60-member But once gingerly turned over, the well-known high and we just chorus of school children originally its other side spills out an entire letterpress shop’s [eased] it down recorded in 1976. world of bizarre imagery, a riot of esthetic, admits very slowly until But his current obsession/project— hieroglyphs carved by an alien hand: to having one it started getting cataloging and popularizing the humanoids with spidery bodies amid thought upon a good impres- works of Jim Flora—is his biggest a landscape of rickety buildings seeing the Jim sion.” yet. He stumbled upon Flora’s art and brutal machinery. What rituals Flora block for The result of years ago in the same places that are they enacting, what stories are the first time: Baker’s pains- so many current artists originally they trying to tell? To find out, the “F-word!” taking work is discovered it: thrift stores. In the board must be coated in ink, pressed “There’s just “Railroad Town,” 1940s and ’50s, Flora drew utterly bi- against a clean sheet of paper, and not a bad cut on a limited-edition zarre and magnetic album covers for printed. the whole damn SELF-PORTRAIT: Jim Flora as he saw himself relief print of Columbia and RCA Victor, mostly for It sounds like a simple procedure, block, and that’s pretty amazing,” 50 copies, with proofs priced up to jazz artists like Gene Krupa, Louis but the printing experts here on the says Bradley. “I don’t even know $2,500. But more importantly, it is Armstrong, Duke Ellington. Childlike second floor of Yee-Haw Industries in what kinds of tools he was using. another reclamation of what was yet sinister, chaotic yet balanced, downtown Knoxville are not a little Not even with an X-Acto knife can thought to be lost original art by playful yet weird, Flora’s illustra- awed. The block of wood is unlike any you make these cuts in wood without Jim Flora. Striking in its complexity, tions were unique; they inspired they’ve worked with before, created some history of the edges overlap- detail, and pure juju, “Railroad Town” many imitators at the time, though in Mexico over 50 years ago by the ping, but he has the cleanest edge on adds to the growing reputation of a few could match his technique. late artist Jim Flora and rediscov- these little hairlines, straight lines, humble man who had no idea that Inevitably, this ephemeral art landed ered just a few months previously. Its and curves that you’ll ever see. It’s he’d someday be cited as a primary in used-record bins to be discovered carvings are mysterious not only for very fascinating to try to figure out influence by almost every major by those drawn to its peculiar vibra- the strange beings they portray, but how he was doing it.” artist in a movement that fuses tions. also in their technique. In fact, this woodcut is an ir- pop-culture imagery and fine art: “I was collecting Flora covers “His line quality, the manner in replaceable piece of art history by a lowbrow. The story of how it landed before I ever realized there was such which he carved it, is really, really commercial illustrator and painter in Knoxville is just as unexpected as an artist as Jim Flora,” says Chusid stunning. I can’t even explain it,” who, until only the past few years, a Flora woodcut. from his home in Hoboken, N.J. “I says Yee-Haw’s Bryan Baker, the was largely forgotten. The block also used to be a record collector in a

January 17, 2008 Metro Pulse 19 former life. Record collectors for and King’s wall, Chusid was curi- tend to be lower life forms, the designer credited with ous: Why did he have these and I confess I was one of inventing the entire concept here? King explained his those groveling creatures. I of illustrating album covers, fascination with the little- had a couple of covers came across one of these known Flora, and Chusid’s that I just bought at odd little magazines and curiosity was piqued. thrift stores or garage offered Flora a job. Flora “I could see that he liked sales because I liked blossomed as a cover some of the same painters as the cartoonish qual- artist and the creator of me, Stuart Davis, Paul Klee, ity about them.” Columbia’s promotional Joan Miro,” says King of his Although certainly car- magazine, Coda. Flora was affinity for Flora’s work. “But toonish and often absurd, promoted to art director in he injected that modernism Flora’s album covers also 1943 after Steinweiss left with an energy that had combine a variety of fine-art for the Navy; he unhappily more in common with the influences, from Picasso-style worked his way up funny pages.” cubism to surrealism by the corporate ladder This combination of high way of Miro to modernism a until he became so and low art was likewise la Kandinsky. Other pieces frustrated with com- mesmerizing other record- reflect an almost Mayan feel, pany bureaucracy store-shopping artists who and still others are impish, that he resigned in would buy these frayed with comic figures like you 1950. albums for the inspiration might see in a children’s After an artistic sojourn in of their covers. But Chusid book. In Flora’s most famous Mexico, where he had moved didn’t just want to hunt for album covers, he created with his wife, artist Jane records—he wanted to do his own visual style for jazz Sinnicksen, and their two something with them, just that expresses its energy children, Flora returned to like he had with other bits and sense of cool—while commercial work in 1951 as of cast-off pop culture that still looking completely the art director of Park East intrigued him. So he hunted offbeat: Mambo for Cats, magazine, where he pub- down Jim Flora instead. Inside Sauter-Finegan, This lished spot illustrations by He found him still living in Is Benny Goodman, Shorty a young artist named Andy Rowayton, Conn., his home Rogers Courts the Count. It’s Warhol. Later that decade, for the past 50 years, and the kind of commercial art he produced some of his most contacted him with the goal that refuses to be easily for- revered album art for RCA of getting Flora’s blessing to gotten or disposed of; it has Victor, drew storyboards start a website devoted to his the soul of high art, if not the for distinctive animation album cover art. But in early respect. studio UPA, and began a 1998, Flora was diagnosed Flora (born in 1914) had new career as a children’s with stomach cancer; Chusid actually started out with a book author and illustrator, arranged to visit him for an fine-arts background, gradu- starting with The Fabulous interview in May. ating from the Art Academy Firework Family in 1955. “He was a gentleman, very of Cincinnati in 1939. While In the ’60s, Flora continued informative,” says Chusid. still a student, he launched a doing commercial illustration “I taped an interview, then letterpress with volatile writ- for magazines like Fortune, he couldn’t talk anymore, er Robert Lowry called Little but he retired by the early he was tired. So we went Man Press, issuing limited- ’70s. He devoted himself to downstairs to his studio. I re- edition publications that art once again, but changed member looking around and unleashed his imagination his creative focus to decid- the art that I saw on display for creative design. In 1942, edly un-hip nautical themes: didn’t grab me the way the , art director paintings of boats. album covers did. There were In 1997, Chusid was visit- a lot of boats, and musician VINYL ART: Jim Flora’s ing a friend, the illustrator paintings that seemed like illustrations for RCA Victor’s jazz albums in the ‘50s are now J.D. King, whose work has they were based on the early among his most popular works. appeared in The New Yorker, style but were nowhere near Time, and Newsweek, among as interesting. So I came other publications. Noticing away from that with an in- some of the very same al- terview, with a great respect bums framed and hanging on for the man, and with a sense of tragedy that he was going to be passing away. I had a sense that he had done

20 Metro Pulse January 17, 2008 OTHER WORLDS: Some examples of Flora’s personal works from the 1960s.

cleaned them up, removing left to them. I don’t think it collection is priceless, it’s coffee stains and pen scrib- was anything important to historic, there’s so much that bles and cut corners, creating them. It was in storage, one can be done with it. Please ideal versions. These formed of these climate-controlled, don’t sell it piecemeal on the basis of The Mischievous linoleum-tiled, fluorescently eBay.’” Art of Jim Flora, published lit, steel-gated places—four What Chusid saw that by Fantagraphics Books in floors of metal closets with day in Norwalk, Conn. was 2004, which also collected padlocks on them. a treasure trove of original pieces from Little Man Press “And I got to see the art; artwork—and not just and Flora’s later commercial I couldn’t believe what I album covers, but paintings work for magazines. And was seeing. One of the most and sketch books as well; while Chusid thought they amazing days of my life. I hundreds of pieces. The Flora could gather enough material spoke with Julia afterward, family agreed to let Chusid for a second book, he wasn’t who is the daughter who catalog and record the works, sure if it would be as good manages the artistic estate, as well as figure out how to as what they had already and I said ‘You’re sitting on merchandise them. Which these great album covers in ’40s, and ’50s was discarded, published. That was until this historic collection that’s is how he eventually ended the ’40s and ’50s and that not considered worth saving. original pieces of Flora art never been seen. I think this up in Knoxville, nervously there wasn’t much else I was Plus, the albums Chusid had started appearing on eBay in watching aged woodblocks interested in.” managed to collect were not 2005. being run through a let- But there was, in fact, in the best shape, reflecting “I was shocked because terpress and hoping they much more to Jim Flora’s art decades of wear. they were great and they wouldn’t splinter. than album covers. Chusid However, Chusid’s girl- were early works,” says launched jimflora.com after friend at the time, Barbara Chusid. “And I found out that continued on page 22 Flora’s death, and soon got Economon, also became his family had this art and suggestions to turn the site’s intrigued by Flora’s work— they had put it in storage. collection into a book; yet he and, being a digital-media It seemed like they really wasn’t sure whether he could technician at the Walker Arts didn’t want to think about it really find enough material Center in Minneapolis, she or deal with it because they to justify one. Most art cre- put that fascination to work. were busy raising families, ated for packaging or even She began making high-res had day jobs, and it was just magazines from the ’30s, scans of the covers and something their father had

January 17, 2008 Metro Pulse 21 albums since they considered cover multi-dimensional plane rather than art to be just part of the packaging. dealing with one dimension like ‘cute’ “I had seen his work on album cov- or ‘whimsical’ or ‘funny’ alone. ers for years and years, and never re- “For instance, many times his ally knew who he was,” says Belcher. characters moved beyond stylization “Going to flea markets and thrift into full-blown abstraction, and stores, collecting the content or situations old records—you were often ambiguous. In don’t know what this way I think his work the record is, moved beyond only deco- you have no idea ration or illustration in what the music many cases, and instead is, you just want dealt with more complex it for the art on issues that adults can the cover. I think relate to or appreciate.” that’s what a lot Even a design expert of people have as discerning as Steven done over the Heller—former art direc- years, not know- tor of Magazine ing who he is.” and currently lecturing at the School But all that of Visual Arts in New York—sees record-collecting a pattern of influence from Flora’s has resulted in a sort of subliminal curious art. influence on a new generation of “He was one of the playful popular artists often described as grotesques,” Heller says. “His work pop surrealists. Led by the example was a blend of Paul Klee and Boris of California artist Robert Williams, Artzybasheff, playful, satiric, sar- who coined the term “lowbrow” to donic, wild. Directly or not, he has a COMING SOON: The next limited-edition Flora print will be “Jugglers,” from 1957. describe his work and who founded major influence. There definitely are Juxtapoz magazine, the art move- many 40-50-something illustrators he WFMU Record and CD Baker had certainly seen Flora’s ment dispenses with the strictures who borrowed elements of his work. Fair in is a work before, he wasn’t familiar with of art school for a style that revels “At the time he was producing his T touchstone event for record the artist’s name. in pop-culture imagery like hot rods, best work he was not very significant, collectors, where exacting searches “Irwin came up to me and said tiki totems, and cartoon characters. are conducted for the fetish objects of ‘Hey, I represent the Jim Flora Leading artists like SHAG, Gary their music obsessions: 78s, 45s, LPs, estate,’ but I just thought he was Baseman, and Tim Biskup all praise and other rarities. Chusid, who also talking about himself and wanting Flora’s influence on their work in hosts his own radio show at WFMU, to make an impression or get a deal Chusid’s book while King writes was at the 2006 convention when he on some posters,” Baker says. “He the forward to its 2007 sequel, The ran across a booth labeled Yee-Haw showed me his card and said, ‘I really Curiously Sinister Art of Jim Flora. Industries. want to do something with you.’ So I “Flora had so many things to re- “I didn’t know what Yee-Haw was, gave the card to Julie when she got spect as an artist,” says Joel Trussell, but they had all of these letterpress back, and she was like, ‘Holy shit! a Knoxville-based animator whose posters up there,” recalls Chusid. “I Jim Flora!’ She knew immediately, own style bears Flora-esque touches. looked at them and thought, ‘Wow, and it blew her mind. And as soon as “He seemed to push his composition, they’re really cool. And they’re at the I saw the images, I got up to speed shapes and content right up to—and WFMU Record Fair, so they’ve got to real, real quick.” sometimes slightly beyond—the edge be cool.’ And I asked them if they’d It’s a recurring story: artists collect of what was acceptable by society at ever heard of Jim Flora.” the albums, impressed by their un- the time. I especially admire how he Baker was manning the booth at real images, but don’t know who the took cartoon illustration and used the time while co-owners Bradley creator was. Record companies didn’t it to appeal to an adult audience and Julie Belcher were away. While often print artist credits on their by approaching subject matter on a

22 Metro Pulse January 17, 2008 but not insignificant either. His work its rich black ink on cream paper, one was rather brutish for its time and is struck by the solidity of even its therefore something of an anomaly. finest lines and the firm impression But he was also quite innovative, of its images on the paper, a feeling using almost childlike imagery for that might get lost in a regular jazz. So in short, he became more lithograph. significant over time.” “It doesn’t matter in the real world—the image is the same and you can cognitively relate to it—but there’s an emotional response people ith Yee-Haw on board to have: ‘This was actually printed reprint some of Flora’s work, from the block that he carved,’” says W Chusid only had to decide Baker. “So that’s what’s so magic on which pieces would make for an about it, and that’s why we’re doing appropriate match. The decision it this way. It would’ve been a lot was made for him two weeks later safer to make one proof of ‘Railroad when he got a call from one of Flora’s Town’ instead of putting it through children, Joel. the press 50 times.” “He had found a box in his attic The next woodcut to be editioned that had eight or 10 woodcuts from will be “Jugglers,” another prime ex- the ’40s and ’50s,” says Flora, still ample of Flora’s work. Chusid says amazed. “When I saw them, my first reaction to “Railroad Town” has been

HOT! “Smoked,” an illustration from Primer for Prophets, a CBS TV network booklet from 1954 thought was, ‘Oh man, let’s bring gratifying, though he wishes he had these to Yee-Haw!’ I’d much rather do more resources to market the prints relief prints from woodcuts than do and other Flora merchandise. prints from digital images.” “It’s been very, very gratifying but Flora had learned wood cutting I can’t say it’s been explosive because and engraving at the Art Academy we are very limited in terms of our of Cincinnati, and Chusid knew of reach,” says Chusid. “We have two maybe 30 prints of different works websites and we’ve got a blog. We from roughly between the late ’30s don’t advertise, we don’t have un- and 1960. The existing print of limited funds at our disposal, we are “Railroad Town” had been mounted not a corporation. When we release a on artist’s board and was peeling new print, we’ll put it on eBay, we’ll away—“[I]t was not in great shape,” put it on the blog and on the website, says Chusid. but that’s it. We know we’ve tapped Thus, after an initial trip to make into something; we just wish we some proofs from three of the blocks, could make the business grow, but Chusid arrived in Knoxville last that’s difficult.” May to oversee the first edition of Business considerations aside, “Railroad Town.” Flora had carved the printing the Jim Flora woodblocks piece in Mexico during his family’s has helped bring new attention to creative sabbatical in Taxco in 1950. a deserving artist, and has been an “They stayed there 15 months, and ideal project for the Yee-Haw crew, the way Flora says it, for 15 months who typically collaborate with living all they did was create art,” says artists on prints. But this was special. Chusid. “And it seems like everything “We’ve never really been just a we can identify that’s from ’50 or ’51 printer for anyone, ever, but to work is just an absolutely amazing work. It with the Flora estate and to do this was really Flora at his peak in terms was really special,” says Bradley. “It of being a fine artist, a stylist, and was like working with one of your doing something so amazing and so all-time heroes, like playing golf with STEP BY STEP: Yee-Haw’s Kevin Bradley (top,left) and Bryan Baker set up the “Railroad striking and so absolutely absorbing.” Tiger Woods. It was nice to be chosen Town” woodcut for its first proof. Jim Flora biographer (middle, left) Seeing the print in person, with to take part in it.” m oversees the process.

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