I'm thrilled that Painted Words is coming to the United States. We started the project in Italy with Lavinia Constantino, and one of our goals was to bring it to the USA. We tried in 2019, but we couldn't make it work.

Now, by chance, it's happening. Lavinia is coming to the States for her holidays and will stay with us for a week. We thought about doing the show while she would be here, but we didn't have enough time to organize everything. And then we found out about Clara's exhibition in a space with everything we need for our Painted Words Show!

It is the first step on a journey; there will be many others in the future! We dream of a tour bus to travel around and present everywhere because inclusion matters!

SAVE THE DATE:
Tuesday, August 09 at 7pm
Laguna Beach Cultural Arts Center
235 Forest Ave - Laguna Beach, CA

This is what Painted Words is about:

"Have you ever felt different?

Maybe you were the kid no one wanted to play with. You dress too colorfully. You wear glasses, you are too big, too small, your skin is not colored in the specific color shade that would qualify as ok. Your love life does not meet mainstream social standards. You read instead of going out, you are a party animal but you feel awkward when you’re engaged in deep conversation, you’ve decided to live childfree and all your girlfriends are staying at home moms.

Basically, each one of us has some reasons to not fit in.

We are all outsiders in one way or another. We all are different, at a point that the word different doesn’t mean much after all. Being the different one is something that artist Clara Woods knows way too well: not being able to speak because of a pre-natal stroke, at 16 years of age she has been using painting as her way of communicating with the world and raising her own voice.

Actress and art therapist Lavinia Costantino met Clara, and together they created Painted Words, a traveling roadshow that includes Clara’s painting exhibition and Lavinia’s storytelling show: their goal is to raise awareness of inclusion and equality and promote the right to be different, self-loving and happy."