“Mostly the things he talked about floated around me, but once in a while something would happen and I would understand exactly what he had meant. 'A painting is more than the sum of its parts,' he would tell me, and then go on to explain how the cow by itself is just a cow, and the meadow by itself is just grass and flowers, and the sun peeking through the trees is just a beam of light, but put them all together and you've got magic.”