Thirty-two-year-old Jennifer Peña wants to be remembered as an artist.

Diagnosed at age 1 with tuberous sclerosis, a group of genetic disorders that causes non-malignant tumors to grow in the brain and in other vital organs, she started painting at 8, when hospital staff suggested it would help her deal with her illness. But it wasn’t until last week, on Jan. 6, that she held her first exhibition.

The show, Jennie Niña’s Legacy Art Show, was held at the MJHS Hospice Mollie and Jack Zicklin Residence at 3718 Henry Hudson Parkway. The title references the name Jennie has chosen to represent her artistic self.

“When she was sick in the hospital [as a little child] she painted something for her nurses and doctors,” Ms. Niña’s mother, Cecilia Fiallo, 54, said.

Then, when Ms. Niña was 13, her mother took her to an uncle’s art exhibit in SOHO. She got inspired and started creating her own paintings. Ms. Niña considered attending an arts high school but was soon sent to the hospital with severe anemia and ended up attending a school closer to her home in Washington Heights.

Ms. Niña has been a resident at the hospice for 14 months, although her life expectancy was six months to one year when she was admitted. She has difficulty breathing and spends most of her days in bed. Art has become her escape.

“Art has helped her to keep fighting,” her mother Ms. Fiallo said. “Her mind gets better with art. It’s like traveling.”

Ms. Niña agreed.

“It relaxes my mind,” she said.

Marianne Gunther, art therapist at the Mollie and Jack Zicklin Residence, has a different way of describing the role of art in her patient’s life.

“In hospice our goal is to create legacy,” she said.

She has been working with Ms. Niña for a year to help her choose work for the exhibit and the result is a collection of 26 pieces that include paintings and computer collages.