How a Seizure at the Dentist’s Led Sharon Stone to Painting

Photo: Getty Images for Vox Media

“This is encouraging,” Jerry Saltz told the audience at Vulture Festival 2023. “All you losers, you could grow up to be Sharon Stone.” In order for Sharon Stone to become Sharon Stone, she basically had to die. Many times. The near-death experiences of Sharon Stone are legendary. From getting nearly decapitated by a washing line to her 2001 brain bleed, these events taught Stone to find “complete peace in emptiness.” Stone said these experiences felt like lessons that she was unwilling to learn. They only took after Stone had a seizure at her dentist’s office. “My dentist, super-cool woman,” Stone said. “Super cool.”

Stone suffered a seizure after getting anesthetized for a root canal. After seizing, Stone decided to go through with the procedure. Why waste the novocaine, you know? In an attempt to distract Stone during the root canal, her dentist talked all about her work in prisons. Doing dentistry? No, teaching forgiveness. Stone said, “‘That’s incredible,’ I said. ‘Can you do that for me?’” From her dentist, Stone learned how to forgive herself, especially for her missteps as a mother. “And that’s how I ended up painting,” she said. Stone realized that, as one of the biggest movie stars of all time, she actually could afford the prestretched canvases at Blick Art Supplies. From there, she turned her whole bedroom into a studio and worked, worked, worked. “Before I knew it, I was selling my bedroom furniture,” she said.

Stone’s painting practice came out of her self-forgiveness, but her career came out of her generosity. Stone made a painting for Anastasia Soare (brow guru of Beverly Hills). Soare unveiled the painting at a party full of rich, important friends — all of whom wanted a Sharon Stone original. Stone made up a price, $30,000, which folks were willing to pay. And from there, Stone got her own solo show.

At Vulture Fest, Stone and Saltz talked art practice — including how many paintings she has going at a time (one to nine), whether she also draws (she does if the painting is figurative), and what music she listens to while working (hymns composed by 11th-century saint Hildegarde of Bingen). Stone says a lot of the work of painting is about getting out of her own way. “This is why I worked so well with Paul Verhoeven,” she said. “He said, ‘There’s an angel that flies through you. Just get out of the way.’”