Flying High Florence
The pilots and crew risking their lives in their fighters and bombers were virile young men, mostly in their early twenties and even their teens. So it should be no surprise that the ‘Pin-Up Girl’ was by far their most popular choice for nose-art. Having a voluptuous, curvaceous temptress beneath his cockpit would bring a warm glow to any red-blooded airman. The artists borrowed the pin-up styles made famous by magazine and advertising illustrators such as Gil Elvgren and Alberto Vargas to create their own pieces of whimsy and, let’s be honest, fantasy. We asked Carl to re-imagine this fuselage panel with an original idea in the same style. ‘Flying High Florence’ perfectly captures the genre to create an evocative, and provocative, piece of installation art.
