Birò Magazine - Italian Magazine - April 2022

Birò Magazine - Italian Magazine - April 2022

Birò Magazine - Italian Magazine - April 2022

Clara who uses colors instead of words.

The story of Clara Woods recalls the legend of the hornet: according to the laws of physics it could not fly, but he does not know it and flies anyway. According to the doctors, Clara too should have led a life as a vegetable, instead she has become a smiling girl and an artist whose works are listed on the international market. Clara was born in Florence 15 years ago, a Brazilian mother, a Dutch-Canadian father. Due to a perinatal stroke she does not speak, she does not read and she does not write but she understands three languages ​​perfectly, she has motor difficulties but runs, she uses her left hand with difficulty but paints. To give her a voice and to support her is her family. "At the moment Frida Kahlo is one of my idols. I love ice cream, I have no friends of my age and this is really bad, but I want to become a mother of twins and have a swimming pool at home" she says on her website. "Painting is my way of sharing my inner world. I don't think I'm different: I simply use colors instead of words." Her art is inspired by her incisiveness, she wants to raise the diversity that exists in everyone of us.

Clara began to show the first difficulties as a child, then she is the diagnosis arrived (perinatal stroke) and what seemed like a sentence from the doctors (a life of a plant). After her desperation, however, her parents Betina and Carlo swore that they would give their daughter all the possibilities that the doctors were not available to give her.


«We started a rehabilitation process to teach her to to walk, to get up, to live. Her progress amazes everyone, "says Betina. A teacher teased her to discover painting to express what she had inside. In the beginning, however, Clara destroyed or covered up her works in black. When they gave her a book by Frida Kahlo it was the turning point. . Her paintings have become colorful, paint serenity. One day Clara asked Retina to do an exhibition in New York, like Frida. And she replied: "Why not?". Clara has exhibited so far in 18 cities, including Florence, Rome, London, Miami and Kobe, doing over 30 exhibitions

She has been living in California for just over a year with 1 parents and her little brother Davi (Clara had a visa as an extraordinary talent), she goes to school, she joined the Role Model Next Generation movement of actress Victoria Summer boys and girls who with their life can be "models" for their peers, did an exhibition in Miami during ArtBasel hosted by Louis Vuitton for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. In the meantime she started painting clothes and launched a collection of sneakers, called "Imperfections" For the future she has many projects. "We are working to the next collection of clothes using her art that is beautiful "says Betina" and a collection of NFT (Non-Fungible Token). "She will have her first show this month." We can never stop dreaming and I believe we must dream big.

Writer: Ivana Zuliani
Birò Magazine https://biromagazine.it/

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