Friday, November 09, 2012

A Tough Job but Somebody Had To Do It

Ruskin, Florida

When I made my way to Ruskin to spend a week as Artist-in-Residence with The Firehouse Cultural Center, I figured that this enthusiastic non-profit arts organization would probably put me up at a nice little place like this, the Comfort Motel on Highway 41, at the south end of town. But it was not to be:


It seems that The Resort at Little Harbor is a backer of The Firehouse and a major sponsor of my Residency, in the form of providing a suite at which The Artist could, well, Reside.

The living room:


The kitchen end of the living room:


The bedroom:


The balcony overlooking the marina:


The pre-dawn view from the balcony across Tampa Bay:


I managed to survive.

4 comments:

Markus Spring said...

Certainly a challenge, Carl ;)

Scott Kirkpatrick said...

Was this another part of your world of alternate realities that you discovered while in Florida? How far off the main path from the lovely marina condos to the gallery did you have to go before the alligators, recycled gas stations, and districts of foreclosed homes which are apparently not rare along the Tampa -- Orlando corridor become evident?

scott

richardplondon said...

Glad to see you not only had a paddle, but two spares as well. You never know.

Carl Weese said...

Scott, the economic trouble is visible throughout the area. The elegant resort and marina certainly has customers, but I was told that a whole section, a third or more of the originally planned luxury condos, has not been built. The bottom fell out of the economy. The former tomato fields between the bay and Highway 41, (the north/south main drag that constitutes the center of town) are now taken up by half-completed gated communities. In many cases whole sections of condo buildings and cluster-development structures are sitting framed-out but not finished.