Interview with CanvasRebel:
December 20, 2024
Kelly J. Mendehall
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
Some folks have a tough time wrapping their minds around me, allowing folks to name their price for my works. I am a once bio-typical and non-disabled person who is now physically and psychologically disabled permanently as a result of a little bit of crappy genetics and several years of medical gaslighting, and a lack of access to care. I have deep empathy for how alienated and unincluded the world can make a Spoonie or other disabled person feel. (Spoonie is a term for people with invisible disabilities. See also: The Spoon Theory.)
It may also help to understand that my professional background before becoming disabled was in nonprofit management and administration. I’m a bleeding heart liberal, in other words. I’ve also fallen in love with works of art at public shows and held them in my hand, contemplating whether the two-to-three-digit price tag would impede my ability to feed myself for the rest of the week or month. I wouldn’t say I like that feeling, and I don’t want others to feel it. That’s why I decided to structure my store the way I have.
Since starting the Affordable Art Revolution, I have had incredible energy exchanges with people of all kinds through my work. For instance, I had a teen girl who accidentally found my table at a community event. She beamed when she heard I shared some of her diagnoses because she said I gave her hope and made her feel like “embroidery wasn’t just for old ladies.”
I had a customer reach out to me after buying a set of heirloom ornaments to thank me for doing what I do. She told me that she is also disabled and relies on Social Security disability income. She thought she couldn’t afford any Christmas gifts for her loved ones that year; thanks to my shop, she would have one very special and beautiful gift for each person.
These types of exchanges are why I do what I do, the way I do it.
Kelly J. Mendenhall, CanvasRebel Interview