WHAT DOES THE picture of love look like?

　For Roald Macapagal, it is whatever shade that makes the portrait of Bridgette Andrada: bright, breathtaking, beautiful. In the boy's eyes, she is the Mona Lisa left untouched in a Louvre on fire. For the last six years, life been writing a love story starring them as star-crossed lovers. Besides the pencil sketches she's drawn of him on tissue paper and songs she's written about him, she painted his life colours of wonder & whimsy amongst brushstrokes of misery and stolen time. It still amazes him how now stands so close to a masterpiece of a girl when there once was a time that he was just an admirer from afar.

　But what happens when love becomes nothing more than just a picture?

　As Roald's world becomes colourless in the wake of Bridgette's passing, he questions everything he knew about love in her permanent absence. Little did he know, the papers she left behind guides him back to the magic of the love they once had.

　So what does the picture of love truly look like? In poems & prose ─ and everything in between ─ perhaps the answer lies in the work of an artist in love.

Check the inline comments
or scan the Spotify code
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This is quite different from
Gustave Klimt's portrayal
of love, don't you think?

DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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WARNING: This book contains various mature themes and triggers such as sexual themes, curses, terminal illnesses, self-harm, suicide, alcohol, (internalized) homophobia, and others. If any of these said topics will bother you, please stop reading and look for a book that is more suitable to your liking.

For him.

Fate and time prove to be very, very funny and fickle things, don't they? I want you to know that no matter what else happens, you will remain to be my first love, amongst other things. May you find a flower in bloom amongst your garden of stones, my love. Huwag mong kalimutan na mamahalin at minamahal kita.

Also to Tati, Avah, Colleen, Alex, Sophia, Chia, Ate Anj, Ate Ainsley and a few others: Thanks for your support, everyone. All of it means a lot to me. I don't have much to say besides that, I suppose. Lovelots! ♡♡♡

Hello.

I am interrupting our scheduled formatting just for this book. A shortened introduction, no extended cast nor graphics gallery, and this author's note is properly written. There will be no need for that for now.

If you don't know me, hello, my name is Blessie and I am the girl behind the username shezzaspeare. Since third grade, I have almost been exclusively writing fanfiction in here; and since the beginning of my writing career, I've mostly been using the English language to do so. When I was younger, I've decided not go with the flow of romance stories that was popular in the Philippines, which is where I live. I've mostly stuck by that in the last nine years of my life . . .

But that ends here. Welcome to An Artist in Love, my first original work. The first drafts were originally written in Filipino (my native language), and although I wanted to keep it that way, I am simply not good enough at writing in pure Filipino to give this story justice and that's why a switch to English was necessary. However, there will still be Filipino dialogues, terminologies, and such in the story. I guarantee to provide comprehensive footnotes and on-line translations along the way.

Here's a summary of an AAIL:

Truth to be told, I never saw the vision of me penning down a love story come to life, but here we are. We have the Fates to thank for it. I've become too invested with my very own Roald that I've decided to pen down what you are about to read. I'm not sure if I will have additional original works since AAIL will be a standalone book.

I'm writing this note because writing this has always been a huge leap of faith that I was hesitant to take. Four years hesitant, actually. This started as a small collection of prose and poems I've written for my highschool sweetheart, all dating back to eighth grade. Bear in mind that some pieces featured will be . . . of their time, to say the least. Honestly, my writing back then? Category is: 9-year-olds writing self-insert 1D fanfiction in the style of June Austen. Putangina, ang pangit!

That's all, I suppose. I sincerely hope that with this book, the Fates might bring me back to him without being held back by fear. But I'm going past the point. Enjoy the read, everyone.

PUBLISHED: April 24, 2023
FINSIHED: ________________