protrusions

When he glanced at the artwork what followed was the furthest thing from supernatural. If anything it was super natural.

He saw her everywhere, why would a painting be any different?

Except it was.

The painting itself appeared to be a moon sitting in a night sky. No colors to speak of, outside of the usual whites, grays and blacks. The moon appeared to give off some sort of glow and in the middle of it there was another smaller moon, as if it were casting a shadow on itself.

Understand that I realize that description does very little in helping you imagine this particular piece of artwork. It’s just the best I can do. The whites, grays and blacks might have been usual but the painting was anything but.

But the painting itself wasn’t as interesting as what he saw when he gazed at the smaller shadow-moon inside the larger one.

Her.

Her face suddenly became very clear and actually started to protrude from the painting.

Understand that I realize if I am going for a romantic vibe to this story, things protruding don’t generally help that cause. It’s just what happened. I can’t candy-coat everything in the name of romance.

At first her face looked slightly distressed but then the further it protruded, the more a smile became visible.

He looked discreetly to his left and right to see if anyone else was seeing what he was seeing, but as he was alone it was fairly easy to conclude that they were not.

I’m just going to come out and say it. He was alone because he was inside his house and the artwork he was looking at was something he painted a few weeks prior.

And no, he was not a painter by trade.

And no, he did not intend to paint her.

She just decided to insert herself into the painting without asking. It appeared there was much more than a trick of the light at play.

Is it a good painting? Well, Margaret Wolfe Hungerford, in her 1878 novel Molly Bawn, said “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

Was she, his ex-girlfriend, not Margaret Wolfe Hungerford (who no doubt would be), worthy of this type of hallucination?

The definition of art is as follows: the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.

The definition of love states that love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure.

Was his ex-girlfriend worthy of protruding from his painting?

I think Margaret already hit that particular nail on the head.  A carpenter being only as good as her tools and whatnot. In this case Margaret’s tool being a flirtatious Irish girl named Molly who arouses her lover’s jealousy while ignoring social conventions.

Will his former lover ever escape from the brushstrokes and acrylic that for the moment are holding her captive?

Probably.

Tool   /to͞ol/ 

a device or implement, especially one held in the hand, used to carry out a particular function.

a person used or exploited by another.

 a stupid, irritating, or contemptible person.