David Lucht spent most of his career working around Fire. He was an engineer who specialized in fire safety. Five years after retiring in 2005, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. He and his wife, Susannah Baker, were not surprised by the diagnosis. They had researched his symptoms and were familiar with the disease as his father was diagnosed at the age of 84.

His mission has become to search for a better quality of life for PD people. He has served on panels with the Michael J. Fox Foundation and has participated in research studies on the disease. He sings with a therapeutic Parkinson's chorus. Before his diagnosis, he started taking art classes at the Worcester Art Museum. Oddly enough, even though his first symptom was micrographia, which causes handwriting to get smaller, his artwork has only gotten better.

"It's the greatest therapy," Mr. Lucht, 73, said of his art during a recent interview in his tidy home studio, filled with examples of his work. "It's good for my self-esteem. It's good for my neural networking. It's good for my soul and it's good for my spirit. The camaraderie with other artists is great too. If I didn't have art, what would I do with myself?"

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