If the title hook is going to work, I still think it needs foreshadowing, or hints or something to help the listener connect more naturally to it. Here is a possible way to fold the hook into the chorus. And I think this shows how the painter can be relevant to the lyric.


(v1)
On the 2nd floor
of a 1st street dive
Behind a blue door
He paints a lost life
Hunched at the table
On the edge of his chair
Staring at a paintbrush
His hands in his hair

Chorus 1

He paints her face with a slight pink blush
He caresses her cheek with the stroke of his brush
Paints her blue eyes bright, but they still look sad
You can’t paint happy when love goes bad
He holds a bottle to his chest and he sips release
Awaiting the arrest of the memory police

Imprisoned in the past
He lives his still life
Until Love creeps in
And turn on the light
He holds the brush ready
Until his memory reveals
All the good times lived
That his pain conceals

Chorus 2

He paints a little girl’s smile on a playground swing
With ribbons in her hair like blossoms in Spring
Paints her eyes the shade as his own in the mirror
He cant paint his love for her any clearer
So he puts the bottle to his lips and sips release
Awaiting the arrest of the memory police


Bridge:
The laughter of a child
And the touch of a wife
Are remnants of a dream
At the edge of his life

Chorus 3:

He paints his daughter and her mother at the lake in spring
With the sun on the water and the trees so green
He could almost cry, for he was almost there
But his time is up so he says a prayer
Let me stay a little longer or let me rest in peace
Hide me away from the memory police


"Imagination is more important than knowledge." - Albert Einstein