Miss Lindo is about to leave for university and she brimming with hope and promise.

Her work is of mystical mermaids and she has spent a lot of time painting them around the Island. She began working on them last summer and has carried the theme through while working at Dolphin Quest, volunteering at the Aquarium, working at Chatham House, painting in Crystal and Fantasy Caves, while sitting on the beach and while watching her brother fish.

“It's so funny, but you know when you get some downtime, I'd go to the beach” she said. “And when you see people playing, I'd use that as a scene for my mermaids.

“I'd bring along my oil pastels and the colours were awesome on the water. I have totally moved away from the black and white in my last show.

“I am doing colour and life and that is what I wanted to do. I also not only wanted to do a show from my area, but you know when you are a kid some places are really magical and you love the places.

“Well there are caves in my area and then there is Tom Moore's Jungle, Crystal Caves and Fantasy Caves. So, I did mermaid scenes in those places and I have a good feeling about all of them. I wanted to include some Bermuda scenes in them.”

She runs an art class for girls aged seven to 11 on Sundays and she is finding that the learning process has been mutual.

“We have so much fun,” she said, “You know my Sundays were so boring.

“They have helped me improve my work and it feeds into what I am doing right now. I took the girls on a tour to Crystal and Fantasy Caves and they were like ‘mermaid colours - mermaids live in here'.

“So I asked the tour guide if I could come down there to paint and he said, ‘lots of kids swear that there are mermaids down in the caves'. These are all childhood like images.”

Her work is in oil pastels and she is really loving the way people are responding to them.

“It is so funny, one day at Rock Island, my brother Michael asked what I was thinking when he saw one of my pieces for this show,” she said.

“He was like, ‘that is so spiritual - I don't know what spiritual level you are on, but I want to be there'.”

She is continuously coming up with new things for her mermaids to do, and she figured with her technique that it would simple, but she has discovered another side.

“I thought I could manage two or three a day, but they are emotionally exhausting,” she said.

“They are all oil pastels because you can totally blend them and whenever I get the time I do a scene, but now I have very little time, but I keep coming up with new ideas.”

Although, she has several children's books at home, for inspiration she remains a member of the Children's Library.

“I sit there for hours just looking at the pictures,” she said.

“It has definitely helped with my art work. I have done that forever.

“My parents knew that I was going to go towards art so they found a private tutor and I worked on shading and ridiculous things like that at such a young age. So, it really helped.

“It has been a long time and it feels really good to know what I want to do.”

Miss Lindo wanted to do one more show before leaving the Island and she is glad she ran into Interim Gallery co-ordinator Kendra Ezekiel at Rock Island.

“I wanted to do something for kids and it couldn't have worked out better,” she said, “These guys are great.”

Ms Lindo said she sets two-year goals and just before she has finished, she thinks of what she would like to do next.

“In the meantime, I plan to work in the Hole in the Wall camps started by the actor Paul Newman,” she said.

“They are all over the world and are for kids with terminal illnesses. I would go for two weeks or a month during my summers.

“You can't just do art all the time, you really need experiences and travelling also helps. It is also nice to paint then and there on the spot, but the feelings usually stay in your heart or your mind and they manifest into weird and wonderful stuff.”