During the corona pandemic, 65-year-old actress Sharon Stone reached for paint, brushes and canvas. A new career? More of a comeback. Before her film career, she started studying art. Today she paints up to 17 hours a day.
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Sharon Stone is an actress, author, artist. She had her breakthrough in 1992 in the erotic thriller “Basic Instinct”. She received one Oscar and four Golden Globe nominations, and in 1996 she won the Golden Globe for “Casino.”
SRF: You are world-famous as an actress, now you are selling your art. What does painting give you?
Sharon Stone: The same thing a musician gets from playing her instrument or a pastor gets from preaching in his church. I hope my soul comes through in my artwork.
The brain injury I suffered changes how you see colors: I see more colors since the stroke. These have become a wonderful part of my journey.
What if people buy your pictures just because of your fame?
I don’t care why people choose my art. People should buy the painting because they feel something about it. Maybe they feel happy. Maybe sad. Maybe give it to someone you love. Or who they are angry with. Or they want to decorate their apartment with it because it matches their furniture.
I had to learn to speak, walk, eat, remember people again.
Art has played a large part in my recovery. I am grateful that I can perhaps make this possible for other people too.
You’re talking about the stroke you suffered in 2001 and the cerebral hemorrhage, the consequences of which you struggled with for a long time.
Exactly. I had a stroke in my early 40s. I didn’t go to the hospital straight away. Doctors ran tests but didn’t realize what happened. They didn’t take me seriously. I had brain hemorrhages for nine days – I would probably have died that same day if my friend hadn’t pushed for further testing.
I have decided that I will not give my energy to negative people.
My recovery took seven years. I had to learn to speak, walk, eat, remember people again.
Do you hold a grudge against the doctors who didn’t take you seriously?
I had to recover from a serious brain injury and rewire my brain. I decided what I wanted to absorb into my brain. I stopped consuming the news, watching horror movies, and decided that I wouldn’t give my energy to negative people.
The first thing I do when someone behaves inhumanely: I forget his or her name.
Book reference
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Sharon Stone: «The Beauty of Living Twice». Atlantic Books, 2021.
What do you feel when you paint?
I’m in the flow. I think that’s why musicians always thank God first at award ceremonies: because as an artist you’re in this divine flow.
They profess Buddhism. How did that happen?
I was growing up in rural Pennsylvania when a single mother showed up at our house one day with her son in a trailer. As a 15-year-old, I looked after my son who broke his back playing football.
I washed him, fed him and read to him for hours. Afterwards we philosophized about texts. We read books about spirituality, Buddhism. Eventually he became a Hare Krishna and I became a Buddhist.
If you had to choose what you wanted to do for the rest of your life – would it be acting, writing books or painting?
I don’t think an artist’s mind works like that. Let’s take Da Vinci: He was an artist, architect and invented a number of things at the same time.
It’s as if I were asking you: If you could only move one of your limbs for the rest of your life, which would it be – the arm, the legs or the mouth? Impossible.
The interview was conducted by Alexander W. Rauscher.
Notice
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This interview is an excerpt from a “Kulturzeit” article. The questions and answers have been shortened and summarized.
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SRF 2, Kulturzeit, February 19, 2024, 9:50 a.m.