Jared Aronson’s Story – an Amazing Young Man with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

GILFORD – It’s one thing in life to find something that you love to do and it’s quite another to find that something only to have it taken away from you. Even more miraculous is when, what was taken away, is restored.

Jared Aronson is an artist and has been since he was a child. Every since he can remember he has had a love for drawing and he has parlayed that love into a successful T-shirt company called Madhouse Tees (www.madhousetees.com). Jared’s T-shirt designs are both whimsical and irreverent, poking fun at society’s norms, the advertising industry, history and everyday life in general.

Now 23, his witty ideas translate well to the T-shirt medium and are popular with people of all ages. One shirt parodying the popular line of John Deere Tractor equipment and subsequent advertising campaign is green and yellow with footprints on the ground and asks, “What deer?” Another shirt features the man in the moon with an American flag sticking out of his eye remarking, “Thanks a lot Neil.”

Jared’s dry sense of humor comes out in every shirt he designs including the one portraying a banana slipping on a person. This unique humor has come in handy throughout his challenging life. You see, Jared is confined to a wheelchair and only has the slightest use of his thumb making his artwork all the more remarkable.

Jared’s parents first realized that something was wrong with their son when he was late to walk for his age. When he finally did get on his feet, he began falling around the age of four. A battery of tests confirmed that Jared had Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a progressive disease marked by the steady wasting of the muscles. Aronson’s health began to deteriorate steadily and he is now confined to a wheelchair and bound to a ventilator 24 hours a day, seven days a week and needs to be accompanied around the clock by his parents and nurses.

There have been some close calls for Aronson, who has lived in Gilford his entire life. In fact, Jared received his diploma from Gilford High School while in Concord Hospital, where he spent 17 days in the intensive care unit after catching pneumonia. At one point Jared weighed just 52 pounds, down from his normal weight of 120 pounds. Throughout the progression of the disease, Jared has lost more and more of his ability to move. He has been seeing the therapists at Summit Rehabilitation in Gilford for a number of years and receives treatment three times a week to remain as flexible and limber as possible.

When Aronson was first attached to a ventilator, he lost his power of speech. It took a while to track down a trach, or tube that attaches to his throat, identical to that which was used by Christopher Reeve, which allowed Jared to speak again.

The way in which Aronson creates his artwork has also changed over the years due to his disease. “I used to use pens and pencils and then a computer mouse but after a while I was not able to even do that,” said Aronson.

Jared gave up on drawing for a long period of time after he could no longer manipulate a mouse. He was essentially resigned to the fact that he would no longer be able to do one of the things he loves to do most in life. Then, he found that by using Photoshop it allowed him to draw using just his thumb and a sensitive track ball. He was once again able to pursue his passion, although in incredibly painstaking fashion. In fact Aronson says its takes him over 20 hours to create a single design.

He begins by sketching the artwork, whether it’s from a preexisting design being parodied or an original design, and then filing in the colors pixel by pixel.

Aronson first became interested in designing T-shirts when he was asked to do a design for the Aaron T. Francour Memorial Basketball Tournament. He has since continued to design the tournament’s shirts while also taking on many other projects such as designing shirts for a pig roast and creating designs for his friends.

Jared continues to develop new designs and in fact he has just recently added four new T-shirts to his website and has countless other designs ready to go to print. He is also willing to take other’s ideas for a design and incorporate those designs into a shirt.

Aronson’s entire line of T-shirts can be found at www.madhousetees.com and they would make an excellent gift this holiday season for those who appreciate an off-the-beaten-path sense of humor.

We at Disabled and Productive recently had the chance to interview Jared, and if you’d like to find out more about his inspiring story, please take a look at our interview of disabled artist Jared Aronson.