At 70, Chicago artist with Parkinson’s disease paints his first mural, a tribute to veterans

George Zaremba in front of his mural “WE REMEMBER” at North Sacramento Boulevard and West Carroll Avenue on the West Side. | Santiago Covarrubias / Sun-Times

For years, George Zaremba had painted for his own enjoyment. It became something more to him after being diagnosed five years ago with Parkinson’s disease. His art was no longer just a hobby. It was a way to cope with a degenerative condition that breaks down body and mind.

Painting “definitely is a catharsis,” says Zaremba, 70. “You feel as if you don’t have Parkinson’s while you’re actually involved.”

This past summer, he took on his biggest artistic challenge. Down the street from his West Side art studio, Zaremba painted a black-and-white mural that features the faces of two Vietnam War soldiers bookending a scene of three soldiers’ silhouettes and a rifle propping up a helmet beneath the mural’s title: “WE REMEMBER.”

“WAR IS HELL” is emblazoned across the helmet of one of the soldiers.

Zaremba is a real estate broker who lives in Humboldt Park. He didn’t serve in the military but says he “grew up in the Vietnam War generation” and wants veterans to be treated with respect. He says seeing soldiers “coming back as heroes, welcomed by their families” makes him wish those who fought in Vietnam were treated the same.

He paints as often as he can, going three times a week to Palette & Chisel Academy of Fine Arts, which offers studio space and workshops on the Near North Side.

George Zaremba painted the mural “WE REMEMBER” in the summer of 2019 on the West Side with his friend Rick Smith’s assistance.

He’d prefer that people focus on his art, not his illness.

“If something is beautiful, and somebody says it’s beautiful, they won’t say it was done by a person with Parkinson’s,” he says. “They’ll just say it’s a piece of art that was done beautifully.”

People with Parkinson’s often experience tremors, rigidity, slow movements and balance issues as well as mood and sleep problems, according to Dr. Danny Bega, a Northwestern University neurologist who specializes in movement disorders. Painting can help alleviate some of its effects, as can dance and music, Bega says.

George Zaremba at his studio.

Zaremba says the key benefit for him is mental, “but I can make myself feel better by feeling good about what I’m doing.”

He speaks of his art “punching through the cobweb that’s holding you back and making you feel apathetic.”

George Zaremba says his 2019 mural “We Remember” is based in part on this image of an American soldier in Vietnam in 1965.

Parkinson’s “makes you not want to be active,” Zaremba says.

So that’s what he fights. Three times a week, he boxes on the North Side at Rock Steady Boxing, which has classes for people with Parkinson’s.

“It may sound crazy, but this can be the best part of your life,” Zaremba says of living with Parkinson’s. “It marvelously focuses your mind. You feel the need to do things you’ve put off in the past.”

Zaremba’s friend Rick Smith, who assisted him with the mural project, says, “It helps him a lot. It definitely unbounds his creativity.”

Smith, who works in technology in Arlington Heights, says that, before heading outdoors, they painted a mockup in Zaremba’s garage. They tried phrase after phrase for the mural before landing on “WE REMEMBER.”

“The words choked me up,” Smith says. “It was a powerful image. And the words added to it.”

George Zaremba (left) with his friend and assistant Rick Smith in front of Zaremba’s mural “WE REMEMBER” at North Sacramento Boulevard and West Carroll Avenue on the West Side.

Zaremba says now that “WE REMEMBER” is done, he hopes to complete more murals.

Click on the map below for a selection of Chicago-area murals