What does the author most likely mean by "memory is an abstract painting"?

we remember events in vague and indistinct ways.
we usually respond to art that shows places we remember.
we tend to remember artwork we saw when we were young.
we are more likely to remember colorful people and places.

We remember events in vague and indistinct ways.

Explanation:

By comparing memory to a painting, the author is metaphorically speaking, saying that memories, just like paintings, they represent things as they feel and not just how they are. Memories can't be the same as the reality. But they can retain most of the things, the feel of it but not in the same sense as the real feel. By saying that "Memory is an abstract painting", the author means that memories holds the best qualities of those incidents or situations just like an artists paints something and that stays as it is represented, not the real truth but in a vague and indistinct way.  

try to do soaps tone.

s-subject

o-occasion (the reason the author wrote the poem)

a-audience (who is this poem mostly for)

p-purpose (was it to convince, inspire, etc. the audience)

s-speaker (can be the author or another character, like is a child, adult, woman, elderly, animal narrating the poem)

tone- the mood the reader gets from this poem

mood- the mood the author had with their own poem

meaning- what do you think the meaning is?

message- what is the author trying to explain to the audience? like what is the theme?

if you still don't get it try showing everyone the poem so they could unravel it