Every person has different emotions when they look at a painting. John Berger said in "Steps Toward a Small Theory of the Visible" is that "when a painting is lifeless is the result of the painter not having the nerve to get close enough for a collaboration to start. He is staying within copying distance."
I believe that to be false. A painting is never lifeless, when you paint you always express an emotion whether it is subconsciously transmitted or not. Art is what YOU make it and not what somebody else thinks of it and in the society that we live in today that has been falsely advertised.
The bond between a painter and its painting is something very special. It goes beyond the word "like" as John Berger puts it.
Likeness is certainly invisible, but you absolutely can represent it in infinite ways.
