The painting by Saul Steinberg is describing a person or a persons personality. The statements "i do" and "i have" all influence what and who you are "i am".
The painting has alot of detail the "i am" is green and at the bottom of the picture like the ground. There are flowers growing from the top part of the "M". The "i am is rising from the bottom. The "i have" is a little bit destroyed there are springs coming out of the "E" and the "V" is kind of patchy. It almost looks like a clothing line hanging with clothes that are drying. The "i do" is all the way in the sky and the "O" looks like the sun and its painted in really bright colors.
I think that what Steinberg is trying to say with his painting is that our lives or our personalities. You will always be who you are. What you have influences you lifestyle for example, if you have a car then you can drive to work, if you don't have a cell phone you can't all anyone form anywhere you are. What you do are the actions that will maybe change what you have or maybe who you are for example if you have been known to be a nice person and then you go and comitt a murderous crime and you go to jail you will no longer be the same you will have changed. Alot of famous people in history are known for what they did and not what they had for example I'm quoting Mr.Sutherland here.."we don't really know what kind of person Christopher Columbus was,all we know is what he did". Things that you have can always go away based on what you do or what desicions you make. I think the main idea is that the most important thing is who you are no matter what because it is the ground, the base of your life.