Caterina LoMedico Marriott

Caterina LoMedico Marriott is an American artist, designer, author, mermaid, environmental educator, entrepreneur, and activist; she is the founder of Caterina Mermaid & Co.

Early life
Caterina was born in Greenwich, CT but her family moved from Darien to Wappingers Falls, NY when she was a toddler. Reluctant about the move, Caterina's mother Laura felt the ocean environment was important for her daughters to experience, which resulted in frequent trips throughout her childhood to various coastal areas around New England such as Mystic, CT; Madison, CT; Watch Hill and Westerly, RI; Cape Cod and Nantucket, MA.

Education
Caterina attended Sheafe Road Elementary in Wappingers Falls from kindergarten to third grade, and Alden Place Elementary in Millbrook, NY from fourth to sixth grade. She graduated from Millbrook High School (from which Hillnook takes its name) in June, 2009 and now attends the SUNY Purchase School of Art+Design with a major in sculpture.

Books
Marriott began work on The Tail of Caterina MermaidItalic text her sophomore year of high school, having gotten the inspiration for most of it by that point. However, she threw out and reinvented the idea several times before the final version, which she self-published within three weeks of her first semester at Purchase. Having discovered publishing to be a very addicting business, she wrote a second and third book, with a fourth expected out by mid-February 2010. The books are now sold in most of the English-speaking world.