Hollywood actress Sharon Stone confessed to experiences of coming close to death and how her life and artistic world changed after the deaths of family members.
Stone, who hovered between life and death after a stroke in 2001, told U.S. entertainment outlet Extra in a recent interview, "I now paint while conversing with souls." The 67-year-old is devoting herself to painting alongside acting, describing it as a "spiritual artistic journey."
Stone said, "Over the past three to four years family members have died one after another, and some channel completely opened." She added, "I actually hear a higher consciousness, so-called 'universal consciousness,' speaking to me," and explained, "portraits began to come to me, and they definitely spoke to me."
She also said that after finishing a work she always thanks the souls. "Someone's soul I did not know let me into their consciousness, and I saw their soul. It was like a blessing," she said.
In particular, the work "Him," included in the exhibition series "Rogues Gallery," remains the most intense memory for Stone. She said, "This soul could not speak for a long time," and recounted, "He confessed that he drowned after being chained in the hold of a slave ship." She added, "Experiencing his fear and pain while painting was so agonizing. But that was his story, and I could not turn away from that truth."
Stone said this artistic change is deeply connected to personal loss. She confessed that although her mother, Dorothy Stone, died last March at 91, she did not make it public for about four months because she needed time to process the grief herself.
She said, "When someone dies, the first thing that comes is anger. I wanted to be silent until I digested that emotion," and asked, "Life is something no one fully passes through. So why do we have to pretend we are okay?"
Stone, who rose to Hollywood icon status with Basic Instinct and Big Bet, is continuing her painting work in a large studio at her Beverly Hills home. She has expanded her artistic world in original ways, such as completing large watercolors with makeup brushes. Having transformed from an actor to a creator who connects souls and art, death and life, Stone, after returning from the brink of death, now captures another dimension of stories on canvas.
Meanwhile, Stone said she was not chosen by Hollywood after suffering a stroke that affected her motor skills 20 years ago when she appeared on the 2023 Max and CNN talk show Who's Talking to Chris Wallace?
On that show she recalled, "I had a massive stroke. In 2001 I suffered a brain hemorrhage for nine days and became very frail," and confessed, "And I did not recover quickly. It took me years to recover." She added that afterward she could not remember her lines and could not function properly for quite a long time, so she was pushed to the margins (in Hollywood).
[Photo] Still from Basic Instinct, ⓒGettyimages (unauthorized reproduction and redistribution prohibited)
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