Although the barracks has withstood the test of time for decades, I was certain the fourteen-foot surge had brought it down that night. The ocean destroyed beach-front homes, blasted the boardwalk and sea walls to bits, flattened the dunes, flooded just about every home on the peninsula, but the barracks, somehow, amazingly remained: still intact, still steady, still there. Seeing this structure still standing, knowing first-hand the intensity of the force that was thrust upon it during the storm, left me awestruck. That fortitude was the inspiration for ‘Survivor’. This painting speaks to the inexplicable force that has helped motivate me, and the whole Rockaway community, to move forward and begin the healing.
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