There are young artists at Madonna Heights, a residential community in Dix Hills that serves young women and girls in need. Adolescent girls who can't live at home -- or don't have a home -- are channeled to this live-in community of about 70 students, who finish their high school years in a structured, therapeutic atmosphere. They are referred by a school, a social worker or the courts. Some are foster children; some were abandoned or abused.
Six years ago, artist Vardi Mortellaro established a therapeutic art program at Madonna Heights with astonishing results. A glass exhibit case in the high school's main corridor is filled with creative works of professional quality. There is some exquisite jewelry, and butterflies are a favorite theme. There's a "yellow brick road" sculpted of metal with the admonishment "Follow the Right Path of Life." A destroyed house with the letters HELP cut into its roof is titled "The Pain of Katrina." There's a miniature metal purse; an inscrutable mask, a mixed-media piece titled "Flirting With Death."
