My brother, Buster, is unrolling the mural in my mind’s eye. I’ve started a new painting called “Over the Mantelpiece,” a painting of fishing boats from Nantucket or Woods Hole. On top of the mantelpiece, is the glass bowl full of my father’s little wooden matchbooks, collected from all over the world, sea shells and a collection of my father’s pipes in their pipe stand.

My brother and I are facing the big roll of Arches Water Color paper my mother used for her watercolors.  My brother is starting to unroll it.