“I was in DC and I was a working actor and was pleased to have finally gotten to that point. Then I hurt my back opening night of a dance theater show that I was in and I couldn’t walk for eight weeks. Looking back on it, that doesn’t seem like a great deal of time, but for me it was like, “Oh, I’ve gotten to where I want to go.” Then I was pushed to the bottom. And so I didn’t know what to do with my anger about that. And so I painted it, my anger and my melancholy.

I also started writing in that time. And since then, writing and painting have become more important to me than acting because I realized that I didn’t have to tell other people’s stories. I could tell my own, and it’s really shifted everything for me. But creation as a healing technique started in what felt like such a big tragedy at the time. Then a few years later, two years ago from now, I was diagnosed with a really rare illness and almost died. I didn’t know who I was after that experience. It was so traumatic that I think parts of me died. So I didn’t know who I was on the other side. And thank goodness for painting and writing because I just painted and I wrote it down and I wasn’t moving at a great speed. It wasn’t like suddenly 30 paintings came out of it …

So the hero’s journey is that story that I’m so inspired by because my background is in theater, it’s in Shakespeare, it’s in classical literature. So I’ve studied that from the written or performed point of view for decades. But to paint it was something a lot more personal because it’s mostly my hero’s journey. There are paintings in the show from my depths, they’re much more violent or morbid. And then there are paintings that are more heroic from what feel like achievements … So it’s very spiritual, a lot of people have used the word violent or morbid or sexual. And I think that maybe there are elements of that, but I think that’s just human. So I see it as more of the intersection between the spiritual journey and the human journey. I guess how I refer to my art and the hero’s journey in general is there is an inseparability between the mystical, spiritual, immaterial world and the physical material human world. And I am painting the intersection of those two worlds. So the theme is the hero’s journey.

There is a one story that is really the only story that we tell, and sometimes it’s told as a romance, other times it’s as revenge, other times it’s a tragedy. Now, what makes it a happy story is if they go all the way around. What makes it as a tragedy is if they don’t make it, they get stuck in the depths where the hero’s journey could be seen as a circle, and you start at the top and you want to end back at the top. So everyone’s going to go through those low points in their lives, and some people never climb out. But because it’s a circle, you can’t get back to the top if you don’t go down …

What I paint and what I write has given me a way to express something that I think is really important. And I think that’s just what all artists are doing is we’re trying to share something that feels really important to us and we want other people to put value in it as well, but they might not. And that’s okay.

I think one of the parts of me that died with that illness, Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a really horrific autoimmune disorder, I think a part of me that died was caring [or] being attached to the outcome. I’m no longer very attached to what comes out of my paintings or my writing or my life. I just want to be present for it. That was such a big shift for me. So I know that people look at a lot of my art and they think that it’s kind of violent, but I think it’s so beautiful because most of what I’m painting are the low moments where we are in pain and we’re probably alone. We learn that we can either stop and succumb to that pain or we can change and grow. That’s just evolution … I guess what I’m painting is evolution and I could write a thesis on what I think evolution is.

I think I’m scared of all the things that everyone is scared of. Failing myself, wasting my life. I don’t want to waste my life. I used to be afraid that if I didn’t change a lot of people, if I didn’t reach millions of people with my art, then my life would be a waste. Now I’m realizing that it’s not my job to save the world. Maybe my only job is to save myself. And I don’t mean that in a selfish way, that we shouldn’t be kind and we shouldn’t help other people, and that we shouldn’t try to make the world a better place because we should. But I know that everyone goes to the depths and if they don’t know without a shadow of a doubt that they can climb out of it, they won’t.

I am trying to paint hope.

I am so afraid that I can’t come out of my own depths, but because I’m always trying, I have this relentless warrior spirit in me that will not let me succumb no matter how down I’ve been down. I have this fighter in me, and I know that everyone else does. And so I know that if I’m scared all the time, then everyone else is scared all the time. And you can’t be brave if you’re not scared … If I had one goal, and I think it’s the goal of the hero’s journey, I want people to learn compassion for themselves. I want people to learn to forgive themselves. I know it’s not easy, but if you don’t learn how to forgive yourself, then you can’t forgive anyone else. And if we learned how to forgive ourselves and we learned how to forgive other people, I think we would heal the whole world. But it starts with the one person. It starts with the one journey. That’s why the hero’s journey is the only story. It’s the only journey that there is.

We all see “The Matrix” or “Star Wars” or “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” and we all want to be the chosen one, and we are. We are all the chosen one. That’s what the hero’s journey is. You are the chosen one of your story. Your job is to save yourself and then you are unstoppable. That is the hard task. I have been so low in my life because of external forces, but also because of internal forces. And I just know that I can’t go down any further than I’ve already been. So I just have to go up. I don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s a mystery. The hero’s journey is a mystery.

I’m learning that the most beautiful gift of life is that when you stop trying so hard and when you let go of the outcome and you just live in the present moment – more comes to you and more happens. So I am getting there, but I’m not done. I’m not at the top yet. I’m still on the circle of the hero’s journey, I’m still right after the bottom. I’m like, oh, there’s something up there and I’ve got to go up there. And apparently you get there by not trying to get there. So that’s what I’m learning.” —as told to Scott Elmquist.

“The Hero’s Journey,” an art show with paintings by McLean Fletcher, takes place at The Basement, 300 E. Broad St. on First Friday, Dec. 1 from 5 to 11 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 2 from 5 to 11 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 3 from 1 to 4 p.m. No cover charge for the art show, cocktails and food available for purchase at the bar.