Whether housed in an empty storefront, a spare room or a rehabbed historic building, artists' studios generate a creative undercurrent that courses through their neighborhoods. Meet three Bay area artists whose studios lend their 'hoods distinctive flair.
Susan Gott
Susan Gott operates Phoenix Glass Studio out of a warehouse adjacent to her home, a 1912 Sears and Roebuck foursquare located in the heart of Seminole Heights. Neighbors drop in during business hours (typically 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Mon.-Fri.) to purchase anything from a glass hummingbird feeder — the kind of small-scale piece that constitutes the studio's bread and butter — to the dramatic, large-scale sculptures Gott has become known for throughout her 30-year career. For more information, go to gottglass.com.
Edgar Sanchez Cumbas
For nearly a decade, paintings by Edgar Sanchez Cumbas have emerged from the second floor of Bustillo y Diaz cigar factory in West Tampa. And, oh, the places they've gone — from a private collection in Hong Kong to a retrospective at the former Gulf Coast Museum of Art in Largo. The rehabbed factory, which still bears the residue of its cigar-rolling past, serves as the perfect backdrop for the artist's abstract canvases. For more information, go to edgarsanchezcumbas.com.
Dani Sigler
One of a handful of resident artists at St. Petersburg Clay Company, Dani Sigler shares a communal studio space housed in a train station just west of downtown St. Pete. Sigler's latest work explores adventurous territory for ceramic sculpture — issues surrounding childbirth, human reproduction and sex. Her raciest pieces — ceramic plates and cups that incorporate explicit erotic imagery to hilarious effect — live behind a curtain at SPC, which is open to the public. For more information, go to danisigler.com.
This article appears in Mar 24-30, 2011.