MOSAIC CREATED TO HELP WOMEN FIGHT ADDICTION

Though it's been only 24 hours since she last looked at a mosaic in the
Meditation Room, Charlye Mack was amazed to see how some 500 pieces of clay
became a river, fish and vine, all mounted onto what was a blank wall
earlier this week.

''I come here every morning,'' Mack said as she traced the clay leaves with
her fingers. ''The art is going to enhance spirituality. I hope this room
will have the same effect on other residents as it does on me.''

Mack is among 17 women who live in the Renewal House, a long-term
residential recovery program for mothers and their children in Bordeaux.

They come to the Meditation Room to gather thoughts and focus on their path
toward a life free of substance addiction.

The mosaic, designed, prepared and installed by Philadelphia ceramic artist
Feral Willcox, functions as a nondenominational altar.

At its center is a mirror, with a clay river running in and out of it,
framed by a sun and a vine. The sentence ''You are loved beyond measure''
is placed on the top and bottom of the mirror.

''I wanted the women to see themselves in the center, so that their
spirituality begins with themselves, not with an outside institution or
force,'' said Willcox, who said she is also a recovering person for whom
the process came from within.

''I hope by having that piece in the room, it serves as a source that
establishes something sacred, giving it a focus,'' said Willcox. The
project is funded by a grant she received from the Leeway Foundation, which
supports women artists and art organizations in the Philadelphia area.

Susan Gorrell, children's program coordinator at the Renewal House, met
Willcox last spring at a writers conference in Georgia.

They have been talking about the project ever since. Gorrell said the art
will change the feel of the room completely.

''It was a room used for meditation in the past, but now it's going to be a
Meditation Room,'' she said.