5  UNIVERSE AND OBJECT  DOES every work of art have a certain precision about something, a certain concentrated exactness, a quality of particular existence?—and does every work of art, nevertheless, present in some fashion the meaning of the whole universe, something suggestive of wide existence, something that has an unbounded significance beyond the particular?  —Eli Siegel, from Is Beauty the Making One of Opposites?

The ropes are coming out of the sky! As a science teacher who has studied the drama of weather and clouds, I love this wild, humorous work. I think Schuselka is dealing with “unbounded significance beyond the particular” as she shows something so touchable—ropes, and something evanescent—clouds and sky, meeting in an astonishing way.

And there is certainly “a quality of particular existence” here. The ropes are sinuous, and also cheerful, playful, even mischievous. They seem to dance as they spread out, coming to rest on the shadowed grasses. White clouds with striations of gray in that pale blue sky, are at once substantial and floating.

When artists change things through their imagination, I’ve learned from Aesthetic Realism, the purpose is to find the universe more meaningful, not lessen it, as people can do in everyday life. Does every object have more mystery and possibility than we may see at first? Art says yes, and this print joyfully insists we look again, and keep looking.     –Barbara McClung

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