My first away from home studio was in Ybor City, the old part of Tampa in an old cigar factory. It was a very old building. I was on the third floor in a loft with a couple of other art students. There was no heating or air conditioning. The fold out windows allowed pigeons to enter the building, so there were droppings around the edges of the room where they roosted on the window ledges. I soon learned to stay in the middle of my space, away from the windows. The floors were wood planks. We froze in the winter and broiled in the summer.
I loved that studio. it was vast with incredibly high ceilings. The rent was about 40.00 a month. We thought of ourselves as the elite of the art student world. After all, we had studios off campus. I remember that the entrance floor of the factory had mosaic tile laid in the name of the factory and it was so pretty. The neighborhood was Cuban and there were many shops and tiny cafes where you could get wonderful food for very little money. We loved to hang around there after painting sessions. There were also street bodegas where they sold deep fried crab cakes with hot sauce. They were the best I ever tasted and I long for them to this day.
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