Ventured over to the Whitney Museum and checked out the Paul Thek Retrospective Diver. Got a big surprise though when the writing on the wall in one room had a bit about his time on Fire Island. A nomadic artist, when Thek returned from Europe he resided in the East Village of Manhattan and during the summer months, would spend time in a shack on Fire Island in Oakleyville also known too as Lonelyville. Excerpt and photo of Thek in his Fire Island shack taken from Diver, A Retrospective.
Thek thrived in New York in the early 1960's but also craved nature, often retreating to outlying spots at the edge of the ocean where he could regroup and collect himself. In the 1950's he began summering in Oakleyville on Fire Island, a tiny hamlet with a handful of houses on the bay. There was no indoor plumbing, electricity, or telephones when Thek first started subletting a cabin there, and even after such modern conveniences arrived in 1967, Oakleyville remained a sleepy outpost. The seclusion and natural splendor would continue to draw him in even when he lived abroad.
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