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MOSAIC ALCHEMY

Providing art and social experiences that result in one of a kind mosaics. As we continue to emerge out of the COVID 19 Pandemic, Experiences are available via ZOOM, FB msgr, and by phone.

  • Home
  • Videos
  • Events
  • About
    • About
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  • What I Do
    • Mosaic Art
    • CJEA
    • Community Projects
    • Art Education
    • Individual Clients
    • Commissions
    • Eye on Design
Filtering by: Weekend Retreat

This Tender Ground - Weekend Retreat
Aug
15
to Aug 17
Art Show, Art Experience, Weekend Retreat

This Tender Ground - Weekend Retreat

  • Fri, Aug 15, 2025 9:00 AM 09:00 Sun, Aug 17, 2025 4:00 PM 16:00
  • Serra Retreat Center (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS
 

“This Tender Ground”

Free Weekend and Day Retreats at Serra Retreat Center
Healing Through Art and Journaling
for Los Angeles Wildfire Survivors

Artist Betty Rosen invites you to a series of free mosaic-making workshops, expressive arts retreats, and community rituals of renewal offered to those affected by the Los Angeles wildfires. Hosted at the Serra Retreat Center in Malibu, this three-year residency, THIS TENDER GROUND offers a place to rest, restore, and reimagine together through the healing language of art.

Our long term project, inspired by the AIDS QUILT, will be a community driven public art piece, to commemorate and offer healing from the wildfires.

This is a three year residency. We begin with two upcoming events.

Free Weekend Retreat
August 15th - 17th
See below or events page for details.

To reserve your spot please make a $25 donation with Serra via their website:
https://www.serraretreat.com/this-tender-ground

What we’re offering:

  1. Take a weekend for yourself, yes, just YOU. No cooking, No Social Media, No work. No fretting. No paperwork. No decisions…

  2. Experience the simple, empowering, healing and fun work of Dr Lucia Cappachione’s CREATIVE JOURNAL EXPRESSIVE ARTS. Check out  Lucia's Amazon Author Page to explore her many publications.

  3. Explore an introduction to mosaic making. Betty has been a professional mosaic artist for 20+years.

  4. Enjoy the beauty of Malibu, California’s SERRA RETREAT CENTER

  5. Leave with tools and materials to continue your creative practice. Or not…

  6. Enjoy our special presenters sharing their artistic crafts, tips, and stories of their creative paths.

  7. Make new friends and/or get reacquainted with your BFF inside of you.

Weekend Schedule

All activities in the Serra Room

  • Arrive anytime after 2pm
    Upon arrival and check in at Serra Retreat

    5pm - all evening “BYOB” (Build Your own Bouquet) and other creativity stations to explore and discover.
    6 - 7:00pm
    - Dinner
    7 - 8:00pm - Intro to CJEA writings.

    8:00-9:pm- Collaborative Songwriting with Stuart Ziff

  • 8 - 9:00am - Breakfast-

    9:30-11am - Movement & Spiritual Scavenger Hunt (Weather Permitting)

    12 - 1:00pm - Lunch

    1:30-2:30pm -

    3 -5:00pm - Special Presenters: Elizabeth Hedenberg and Dawn Mendelson will guide us in making Mosaic Pots. Adorn the outside of your ceramic pot with broken plates, glass, ceramic etc.

    6 - 7:00pm - Dinner

    7 - 8:30pm - Potential Guest Presenter and/or Film about a non traditional artist.

    Bring you favorite snacks to share.

  • 8 - 9:00am - Breakfast

    9:00am - Checkout: Remove belongings from your room to cars, place bedsheets in hall, and return to Rindge Room

    9:30am - 11:30am - Grout you Mosaic Pot. Bring old tshirt as grouting is messy; we will have aprons as well.

    We will also have soil and seedlings for you to take with you once the grout dries. Likely milkweed or other plants that attract butterflies!

    11:30pm - 12pm -Reflection

    12:00pm - Lunch

    Retreat Concludes

    You are welcome to enjoy the Serra Retreat’s grounds for the afternoon as long as we are respectful of others at retreat center.


What’s Provided

  • Single rooms, with bed and desk and lamps, adjoining bath with shower, Serra provides simple towels, soap, linens.

  • (5 Meals, cafeteria style).

    Friday: Dinner
    Saturday: Breakfast, Lunch, & Dinner
    Sunday: Breakfast


    There is a fridge in the Serra Room where we will gather. Feel free to bring snacks to share or special foods for those with food allergies or other preferences.

  • Creativity Stations to Explore -

    Coloring, Mandala Rock Painting, Flowers, Collage/Lantern making etc etc. Every workshop will have different Stations.

    Journaling and Art Materials

    By consent, Email list to stay in touch with other participants.

 

Learn and play with these tools and more. :)

Glass, plates, ceramic tile, smalti, etc. Play with these materials and more.

(left) Lucia Capacchione (right) Betty Rosen at Serra in 2022

Mosaic Alchemy

Hosted by Betty Rosen CJEA Practitioner & Mosaic Artist.

Betty Rosen has had successful careers in Film Production, Music Publishing and as a Teaching Artist specializing in mosaics and community built projects and now as a CJEA Practitioner.

Resilience, Music, Art making, Scribbling, Spending Plans, Nature, Intimate conversations and Belly Laughs are the tools we will share and practice together so we can identify and pursue the changes we crave.

About the Space - Serra Retreat Center

Serene, rustic, and a home for the Friars. It’s important to us to show respect for their practices and this sacred space. This is not an opulent Malibu retreat; this is a simple, beautiful place for reflection and residence for the Friars. It’s stunning. Quiet. And a rare opportunity to stay in Malibu at an affordable rate.

Please visit their website if you have any further questions. You will be more comfortable if you leave your inner foodie at home, and there are many Malibu eateries to take advantage of on either side of the retreat. There is a refrigerator to store snacks and specialty items.

Overseeing Malibu Beach from Serra Retreat Center

Level of walking moderate to extreme.  There are stairs everywhere. *
https//www.serraretreat.com/

Community Dining Room

I have been there for personal retreats many times since COVID; they take safety precautions very seriously.  

Please don’t come if you are experiencing any symptoms or have traveled less than two weeks prior. Proof of vaccination required by Serra Retreat Center. Social distancing and masking will be in place when inside.

Please join us and share this opportunity with others!

Sunset over the Pacific Ocean

All activities in the Rindge Room and courtyard. Beautiful tiles everywhere!

2022 Retreat; CJEA Exercise in Rindge Room

Mosaic Alchemy’s Celebrating Circles Retreat 2022

Pioneer of CJEA work, Dr. Lucia Capacchione, and others, participating in non dominant hand journaling exercise.

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Celebrating Craft
Aug
16
to Aug 18
Art Show, Art Experience, Weekend Retreat

Celebrating Craft

  • Fri, Aug 16, 2024 5:00 PM 17:00 Sun, Aug 18, 2024 1:00 PM 13:00
  • Serra Retreat Center (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

MOSAIC ALCHEMY presents: “Celebrating Craft”
What is craft? What does it mean to make something with our hands, with our bodies, with our voices, with our language, with each other?

What techniques can be improved with practice? Which require spontaneity? Do we trust our instincts when creating?

How can we support each other and our communities to take artistic risks?

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Celebrating (the sometimes maddening) Creative Process
Mar
8
to Mar 10
Art Show, Art Experience, Weekend Retreat

Celebrating (the sometimes maddening) Creative Process

  • Fri, Mar 8, 2024 6:00 PM 18:00 Sun, Mar 10, 2024 1:00 PM 13:00
  • Serra Retreat Center (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

MOSAIC ALCHEMY presents: “Celebrating (the sometimes maddening) Creative Process”
Creativity is in all of us.  If I can, you can.  And I can.
And some days I can’t. And that doesn’t mean it's not there. 
Creativity is a muscle like any other; if you don’t use it it atrophies.  

Two Special Guest Presenters:

Martin Wiech - Agape Practitioner sharing YOGA LAUGHTER!
Annie Brooker - Creative working @thestoneindustry sharing MANDALA ROCK PAINTING

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Celebrating Change
Feb
24
to Feb 26
Art Show, Art Experience, Weekend Retreat

Celebrating Change

  • Fri, Feb 24, 2023 4:00 PM 16:00 Sun, Feb 26, 2023 1:00 PM 13:00
  • Serra Retreat Center (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

MOSAIC ALCHEMY presents: “Celebrating Change”
Embrace CHANGE as a friend, a foil, a process and a toy.
Play with art materials. Journal.
Make new friends.
Return with tools, art materials and new skills.

Two Special Guest Presenters:
Martin Weich - Agape Practitioner sharing YOGA LAUGHTER!

Tanya Hekimian -Financial Advisor - Alternative Investments Director The Los Angeles Group | Morgan Stanley

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