LBI artist loses to Sandy, sells 'Remember the Shack' postcards

Photo by Ryan Morrill
"Remember the Shack 10/29/12" postcards
feature four earlier photos of the LBI novelty.

Renowned local artist Tony Desiderio is selling “Remember the Shack 10/29/12” postcards to help him pay for the $10,000 he lost in art work damages due to Superstorm Sandy. He suffered similar damages this past June when a “freak storm” consisting of 60 mile an hour winds, lightning and flooding blew through Long Beach Island and destroyed most of his handmade, framed prints, which he sells out of an exhibit trailer on his front yard in Beach Haven Crest during the summertime. Along with a monthly Social Security check he uses to afford rent, the money he receives from his sales during the area’s tourism season just barely allows him to buy the everyday necessities throughout the year.

“I started rebuilding after the June storm again, and it took me the whole summer. I couldn’t open up; I had to wait. I said, ‘I’ll have everything ready for Christmas.’ And don’t you think, Oct. 29, the biggest tragedy of my life occurred,” Desiderio remembered. “I lost all my trade tools and everything else. The trailer had so much water in it that it rusted the hinges, and we had to break the door off. So it’s completely shot now; the tires are flat. I lost 71 frames; all the mats and giclees all got ruined. They’re all waterlogged; they’re all busted up. If I don’t have art, you might as well say I can starve here,” he admitted.

On behalf of his daughters’ urgency, Desiderio evacuated from his oceanside home on LBI the day before Sandy hit. He fled to Staten Island, N.Y., with just the clothes he was wearing. For six weeks, he stayed with his daughter Dominique Desiderio-Murphy and his son-in-law Mike Murphy in their studio apartment, while other Sandy evacuees returned home to repair their storm-ravaged homes in nearby Zone A areas, including South Beach, Midland Beach and other low-lying areas on Staten Island. LBI residents were not allowed back on the Island for a few weeks following the storm as emergency personnel worked to clear the area of treacherous materials.

“I didn’t want to evacuate the Island. Everything that I own is here: my paints, my brushes. This is it. And I just wanted to be with it,” said Desiderio. “I was so depressed, and I had to put off an operation. I was living up in New York, going out of my mind in a studio apartment with my daughter and son-in-law for six weeks. All I wanted to do was come back (to the Island). Totally I had nothing; I was completely wiped out.”

To ease his mind, friend and local writer Corinne Gray Ruff sent Desiderio a book to read. Inside, he said he found a $50 check to help him get back on track. The Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts and Sciences also reached out to the local artist, offering space in its art studio for him to use at will.

“That’s what we’re here to do, to be a part of the community and open our doors to anyone that was affected by the storm, especially artists, and share our space,” said Kristy Redford, LBIF’s public programs and membership coordinator. “I knew he was one artist who had lost everything, and we have our painter’s loft available, so I didn’t hesitate to offer that to him.”

Members from Jetty + Waves for Water supplied Desiderio with a power saw and drill so he could begin making frames again. His daughter also started a Tony Desiderio LBI Artist Hurricane Help donation page through gofundme.com, which many of his supporters have donated to.

Desiderio said the outpouring of generosity he has received from residents of LBI has given him the strength, courage and financial means to purchase new art materials and continue with his passion, creating artwork. In return, he said he had donated the two last “A Moment of Prayer” canvases that were saved during the storm, to local residents Chris Ball and Ann Coen. He had originally painted the picture for the Twin Towers Orphan Fund in 2001, and also donated a copy to the Veterans Square Clock project in downtown Barnegat in 2003.

Photo by Ryan Morrill
Renowned LBI artist, Tony Desiderio hopes
to sell enough of the post cards to pay for all
of the artwork he lost due to Superstorm Sandy.

Since painting at home is more suitable for his when-inspiration-strikes method, Desiderio said he would be creating a special painting of one of his famous “Crying Mermaid” artworks to be auctioned off at the LBIF. To make the piece more relevant to Sandy, he said he added a puppy to the picture, which would represent the five dogs he and his daughter rescued from LBI after the storm. The dogs are now in Staten Island, but the Doberman he found will be returned to him when his second-floor apartment is in a more livable condition.

Anyone interested in ordering Desiderio’s “Remember the Shack” postcards, which feature a gravestone in the middle of four different pictures he took of the shack in 1976, ’86, ’96 and ’01 and used for his Long Beach Island Classic “The Shack” Years Gone By project may call Desiderio at 609-848-0166. A minimum purchase of five cards is required. Cards cost $2 each. For more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/lbi.artist?ref=ts&fref=ts.

This article was published in The SandPaper.