Beginning with the eyes, Pamela Williamson launches into her self-portrait. She's using her preferred medium, Microsoft's Paint software, and she manipulates the mouse with lightening speed.

While normally Pamela draws from her photographic memory, today she references a picture of herself at Disneyland to guide her drawing. The face, hair, arms, neck and torso take shape and colour in minutes - but she exercises her artistic licence by replacing the mouth with that of a robot's.

"Pamela is a silly goose!" announces the 15 year old.

With a few clicks and drags of the mouse, she is transformed into Princess Jasmine from Disney's Aladdin.

Pam is crazy about Disney.

Her family takes her several times a year and each time they stay at the same hotel in the same room.

Room 178, confirms Pam.

During every visit, she has a growth spurt, says her mom Gail. Her need to communicate is so great that her language skills improve by leaps and bounds.

At age one-and-a-half, Pam completely shut down and withdrew from social interaction, recalls Gail.

At five she was diagnosed with autism. She was non-verbal when she started school and it's been a slow progression, Gail says.

Today Pam is full of enthusiasm and bursts of talking -- sometimes non sequiturs about her favourite topics, Disney and penguins.

Penguins -- from Disney's March of the Penguins -- are Pam's favourite artistic subject matter. She's drawn hundreds if not thousands of them, often depicting the birds with big cartoon eyes, some with human bodies and others fantastical with butterfly wings.

Her realistic drawings, however, best show off her talent.

People with autism often have exceptional talents, such a high visual recall and a superb ability to manipulate data. Autism Society Canada also lists spatial perception and the ability to concentrate for long periods of time among their strengths. On the flip side, they often struggle with communication, social interaction and repetitive behaviour.

Every day, Dana Crow receives a handful of Pam's latest drawings by e-mail. Crow is an educational assistant at the South Island Distance Education School. Pam attends Claremont secondary four days a week but comes to SIDES to work with Crow for an hour-and-a-half every Monday.

For the past five years, they've been working on language skills and learning computer technology.

Over this time, Crow has seen some big changes in Pam.

At first, she sketched mostly on paper and kept her drawings to herself. Today, she shares her work widely and is happy to show off her skills.

It helps her to fit in, explains Crow. Children are amazed when they see her work at the computer.

Last year, Crow helped turn Pam's work into Christmas cards to sell at a craft sale for teenagers. During the sale, Pam drew pictures and Crow set up an overhead projector to let passersby watch her work. She attracted a large crowd and sold 400 cards.

For their next project, Crow would like to transfer Pam's artwork onto fabric to make a quilt.

Gail dreams of the possibility of sending Pam to Emily Carr University School of Art and Design in Vancouver.

Her goal for Pam is that she lead an independent life and support herself through a career in art.

Pam would also like to be a professional artist -- either that, or work with baby penguins at Sea World, she adds.

rholmen@saanichnews.com

On the web

See more of Pam Williamson's art on a website set up to showcase the work of people with autism at www.artismtoday.com. To find out more about autism, visit autismsocietycanada.ca.