How Spooky Is Your Artist?

Here is a Halloween story for all you art lovers out there:

A long time ago in China there was a great painter named Ku. He fell in love with a lovely young woman with dark hair as straight and fine as silk. Although Ku let her know the earnestness of his affection, the young woman would not listen.

As the months passed, the young woman began to fall ill and waste away. Many priests and physicians tried to cure the poor girl, but she continued to fade.

It was not until the girl began to put her affairs in order so that she could pass peacefully that she answered Ku's feelings. Thereafter Ku removed the thorn he had placed in a portrait he had made of the young beauty, and the girl made a miraculous recovery.

(The ink and color painting above is by Matsui Fuyuko.)