This month’s Oculus column features an oil on Arches paper (22×25) done some years ago by Saul Rosenstreich, after a work by Daniel Bennett Schwartz (1929-2020), a prolific New York illustrator. Copying masterworks long has been used to teach painting skills, Saul explained, feeling that this piece — a compelling mix of representation and abstraction, featuring a lone Everyman negotiating the edge of a precipice, his arms outstretched to aid his balance, his feet in some balletic position, Saul said — illustrates a tense situation, yet is upbeat and hopeful.

Coming upon the unfinished work recently, he experienced a eureka moment — that the piece speaks to the mood of the pandemic — that we, too, are in a tense situation, but by staying alert and focused, we will not fall into the abyss. Saul added the final brush strokes, and signed his painting in the convention of copied works: “After Daniel Bennett Schwartz, then added his own signature.

“It will now take its place on the Shehecheyanu Curtain,” Saul said.

May this piece inspire others to illustrate through literature and art their thoughts about the Covid pandemic. For more information about the curtain and how to contribute to it, email Saul at ctigreenport@gmail.org.