EarthSaver Mary Ann Lederer feels lucky. Never mind that she's been in a wheelchair 24 years, ever since an intruder shot her in the spine. Never mind that she has “absolutely horrid health problems” and almost died twice.

“Everywhere I go, everything I do, I find something exciting and good,” she says.

Right now, Ms. Lederer is too busy to go looking for anything.She's in a frenzy preparing for yet another show of her paintings. This one, opening July 8 at Mullane's Gallery, coincides with her 60th birthday.

Sitting in the living room of her tiny apartment, crammed between a piano and a large table holding an honest-to-heaven turntable and large stack of LPs, surrounded by her paintings, she promises to be there: “The thing is, I have to lie down a lot, so I don't go out much anymore. I spent years trying to get people used to the wheelchair and seeing me carried up steps. But now, because of a cyst on my spine, I have to lie down to deal with the pain. So I'll have a couch at Mullane's. You think people will ever get used to seeing someone lying on a couch in a restaurant?”

“I paint the world as I want it to be — sustainable,” she says. “I want it kind. I see the world as a vegetable garden with people holding hands around the earth. I'm for kindness. We too often look for bad guys to blame when we should be giving hugs. Police brutality, racism, the death penalty, they all have to go and be replaced with hugs.”

Marya Ann and friend.

Ms. Lederer practices what she preaches. She's a vegetarian of long standing and an avid organic gardener who relies on friends to help out. She donates paintings to any group with a cause she likes. She's a member of several human rights organizations, and though she can't man the picket line, she still helps. Recently, she painted 40 picket signs for a protest march.

She's also serious about making the world a better place, and for her, that begins with kids: Every Christmas, she collects upwards of 700 books for the neighbor kids in her low-income, predominately African-American apartment complex — “because they should read,” she says. “They need to read; but they don't always have the opportunity. Our complex, usually you only hear about it when there's a police run. I hire the kids, too. Small jobs, like taking out the garbage or running to the store or picking up garbage from my garden. Sometimes, just to reach something on a top shelf. And they love it. Don't let anyone tell you kids don't want to work.”

The kids return the favor: “I did three Big Pig Gig pigs. Can you see them in this tiny apartment and me maneuvering a wheelchair around? But the kids helped. They came in and moved them around when I needed to change their positions.”

Sometimes the kids return the favor in a bigger way. “The reason I don't go out alone anymore is because I'm too brittle. Not long ago, I was alone getting out of my car and into my chair. I fell and wedged myself between the chair and the car. If the kids hadn't come along and lifted me into my chair, I'd have been there a long time.”