Whenever I come across an oil painting, I often look for the realism that is present within each painting. Each beautiful landscape incaptures an image of something that can be seen as if a picture is being taken of it right on the spot. In retrospect, oil paintings give more depth than a simple photo. Photos capture the image, but, oil paintings mess with the color and create more of something to look at. We understand as the viewer that it is a recognizable place, somewhere we can instantly transpot ourselves. We can feel the breeze ceoming off the ocean, the lightning storm occuring as we stand in the lighthouse, or just walking down the beautiful alley of a small town in the country. Oil paintings are beautiful in their individual ways and they all create a separate image in the mind of the viewer.

Berger’s opinion of oil paintings is that you own the image and you own whatever is in the painting. In retrospect, when I was younger, I owned a paiting of The Beatles. I do not own The Beatles, and for that matter, nobody owns The Beatles. I love the Beatles and I wanted to grow up to be like them. They made me want to play music and they were the way I could connect to music. So, whenever I looked at the painting, all I thought of was how I wanted to play guitar like George Harrison and Paul McCartney and how I wanted to sing like John Lennon. Everything in life was revolved around music, and that was what I wanted to do with my life, and looking at the painting every day made me want to realize my dream of becoming like The Bealtes.

In essence, wanting to be something is like owning something inside of you. When you have the inner drive to become something, a part of your soul becomes that something anfd you want to be it. You want to live in it and you want to experience it. So, Berger is right in a sense, but, you cannot physically own what is in the painting. Instead, you can own a part of it and keep it with you.