ERMA – It has been said that if you want to leave your mark on this Earth, wear a pair of hard-working boots. Or, in the case of sign painter Brian DeMusz, also have a steady hand.
DeMusz, who would have turned 65 on Aug. 9, died at this home on July 20 after a tough battle with cancer. Probably Cape May County’s best known – perhaps best – sign painter, he literally left his mark around the county, painting signs for numerous local businesses. According to his sister, Pat Stevenson, Cape May hotelier Curtis Bashaw even hired DeMusz to do a job in New York.
Bashaw confirmed that DeMusz replicated the old logo of the Baron’s Cove Inn in Sag Harbor, New York, carving and painting the sign, which hangs behind the bar. DeMusz also made the Congress Hall sign on Beach Avenue, as well as directional signs around the hotel and for all the guest room entry doors.
“I’ve known him forever – from when I first started in the early ’80s with my grandfather,” Bashaw said. “Brian was the guy we called to do sign-painting.”
Upon the news of his death, tributes began to be posted on social media by people who knew DeMusz through his work or otherwise.
“I knew Brian pretty well,” said Tommy Raniszewski, a local journalist, actor and Bath Time employee. “But Bonnie [Mullock] was the one who expressed the sentiments.”
Bath Time owner Mullock posted that over 30 years ago, when they opened their first store, they asked their friends at Swain’s Hardware to suggest a good sign painter.
“Without hesitation they gave us the phone number of Brian DeMusz,” she said. “We called Brian, he stopped by the store and gave us a quote.”
As they were struggling to start the business, the quote was a little high for their budget, and DeMusz told them he understood.
“A week later, Brian showed up to our store with a beautifully painted sign and with it, his kind words, ‘Just pay me when you can,’” the post read. “That was who Brain DeMusz was.”
The post went on to provide photos of DeMusz and his work, which can be seen all over the Cape May area, whether at Congress Hall, Bath Time, Coffee Time or the Willow Creek Winery.
Werner Tedesco, a local photographer of some renown, admired DeMusz’s work and the man himself, who seemed to be ubiquitous.
“He was one of the best,” he said. “He was unique, and everywhere you looked you would see his work, and you would see him doing it.”
Tedesco, who admired DeMusz for having the discipline to do the kind of work did, owns a handmade sign from the former Pilot House, calling it one of his prized possessions. He noted that DeMusz, as good as he was with a brush, did not just paint, but would carve signs, depending upon what was required. In addition to his skills, Tedesco said, DeMusz was “very witty, very intelligent.”
“He had a good soul and a good heart,” he said. “He was an interesting guy and a shining beacon, and yet very low-key. You were better off after speaking to him.”
Stevenson, DeMusz’s sister, said, “You couldn’t help but love him.”
She said her brother knew he was battling cancer since November 2024. Meanwhile, his wife, Nancy, suffered a stroke. Their son, Phoenix “Nick” DeMusz, 36, had to pick up the role of caretaker. All the while, his father tried his best to not quit.
“I remember in November he wanted to vote so bad and was so sick. I asked him, ‘Did you go to the doctor?’ and he said, ‘Yes, but I voted early first,’” she said.
Brian Marcus DeMusz was born on Aug. 9, 1960, the youngest of 15 children. He lived in Erma all his life. His father John was a farmer, operating a spread on Seashore Road. His mother was Margaret, who saw to it that the kids, when old enough, helped on the farm. Whether it was inborn or acquired, all the DeMusz kids were artistic.
“There is not a DeMusz who is not an artist,” Stevenson said. “Many were clammers, but Brian and Jim did the most [art], and our sister Lorie.”
Jim DeMusz was also a sign painter, but he moved to Florida and did a lot of work for carnivals, painting rides and banners.
Stevenson said a high school art teacher, John Weeks, once said, “You DeMuszes. I know when I see you come in my class it’s going to be a good year.” She said there wasn’t a DeMusz who didn’t take his class.
Although Brian DeMusz had art classes in school, he was otherwise a primitive artist, meaning he had no formal training. She shared a picture of him working on a painting on the front porch of the old farmhouse.
She said that, while he was a teen in the 1970s, her brother entered a pen and ink drawing in the Cape May Art Show, not expecting to win. His drawing, a skeleton riding a chopper on a cobblestone street, won first place.
“That’s a piece of work, I wish I could see that today,” Stevenson said. “It was amazing that a teenager could do something so amazing.”
DeMusz went on to create his own style of art, what people described as unique. Stevenson said he once did a painting of a Converse sneaker. Another is of rock singer Steven Tyler, where Tyler’s head is actually a house, and inside his wide-open mouth you see the living room. Outside the house is a man with a house-shaped head.
“He could do something so beautifully, so gorgeous, and then something so totally weird,” she said. “He could do anything you asked for. He would paint a horse and make and look so normal, and when you mentioned it, he would respond, ‘Yeah, that’s hard to do.’”
DeMusz continued his sign painting as a profession, but eventually opened a gallery for his work in West Cape May. Stevenson said that even when he was sick with cancer, all he did was paint.
His nephew, Josh DeMusz, said he recalls his uncle, when very sick, was on his hands and knees, continuing to paint. Josh was 15 years younger than Brian, and he looked up to him and admired him in many ways.
“He was an artist who put everything into it,” he said. “He never put on false airs. He was the most humble guy you ever wanted to meet. And everyone knew his work.”
Josh DeMusz, whose father was Jim DeMusz, said his uncle was so unique, yet at the same time so precise in his work, which he said adorns many Cape May bed and breakfasts. He would hand-carve and paint signs, hand-carving the lettering, and even use gold leaf when no one else was doing it.
“He was so popular because his style was so authentic. He was a craftsman, like he was born in the wrong time. He was just amazing with his hands,” Josh DeMusz said.
He also said his uncle drove an old truck, which he thought was a 1959 Ford, that his uncle had customized, and which many people in the community came to know.
“People would see the truck and say, ‘There’s Brian,’” he said.
He said his uncle was a great mechanic and carpenter, anything that required use of his hands, including playing the guitar. He said that, when he was 12, he started playing guitar, and he and his uncle would play together.
Brian DeMusz was fond of his nieces and nephews and would take them camping. He loved campfires and enjoyed cooking over a wood fire, even at home, where he had a beautiful kitchen.
Josh DeMusz called his uncle an amazing self-starter, which was overshadowed by his laid-back nature.
“You would never think that was part of his character because he was so laid back,” he said.
He was described as so laid back and gentle that even wild animals would approach them, and he could feed squirrels out of his hand.
Stevenson said her brother was the type of person who didn’t care what people thought of him, adding, “And look what people thought of him.”
Despite being a hard worker, DeMusz would take every Sunday off. It’s hard to tell if he did that as a matter of principle or part of his upbringing by a mother and grandmother who were devoutly religious.
Josh DeMusz said his uncle’s grandmother would get bad news as she was working in the farm fields and say, “I need someone to pray with,” and would grab one of the nearby DeMusz kids, and they would pray for whoever needed it.
DeMusz’s customers were very important to him, he said. He felt he would often undercharge people for the work he did.
He said his uncle looked up to his brother Jim and wanted to do the same kind of work, and so became a master artist himself. He said he had a special relationship with his uncle, and near the end he was working with him when he realized something was wrong with him.
“I felt he was going to collapse doing the work he loved,” he said.
Stevenson said her brother had a special kind of love for people as well. She said when he became very ill his son, Nick, would not leave the house because he was afraid his father would die. As fate would have it, Nick had to go out on July 20, and while he was gone, DeMusz died. Stevenson believes he planned it that way.
“I was talking to a social worker who said sometimes people die when people they love leave because they don’t want them to see them die,” she said. “It’s almost like he waited for Nick to leave for him to die. Brian knew that Nick had just left.”
Stevenson said she loved everything about her brother. She said all the positive comments she saw on Facebook rang true. Curtis Bashaw called DeMusz an “irreplaceable asset,” an artisan who knew the brand his work represented.
“He just kind of got it,” Bashaw said. “He was the real deal.”
Bonnie Mullock said as talented as he was artistically, “the art which Brian truly mastered was that of pure kindness.”
Josh DeMusz said Brian was a real constant in his life, and that he believes that “he had this huge heart that outlived everything.” He summed up his uncle simply, saying, “He was just the coolest person ever.”
DeMusz is survived by his son Nick; siblings Sharon Hutcheson, Patricia Stevenson, Janet Whipple, John DeMusz, Milton DeMusz and Carl DeMusz, and numerous nieces and nephews.
He was predeceased by siblings Margaret Kelly, Shirley Marto, Lorie DeMusz, Barbara Blews, James DeMusz, Michael DeMusz, William DeMusz, and Donald DeMusz.
It was decided that, in honor of him and his love of nature and beauty, a graveside service would be held Monday, July 28, at 11 a.m. at the Cold Spring Cemetery, 780 Seashore Road, Cold Spring.
Contact the reporter, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or call 609-886-8600, ext. 128.
