Return to the Fountainhead of the Faith

the long version

Preface In February of 1994 in the Prospect RV Park, a small recreational vehicle park in Colorado USA, I was commissioned to complete a painting on a flat river stone. It was oval shaped and about 7 x 5 inches. That stone would be the first of many such art works that Geraldine Nusbaum would request over a three-and-a-half-year period. Each of her pieces -- various drawings, thirty paintings on stone, and designs for sixteen banners -- had a distinctive Hebrew ambiance. She was a Messianic Jew: a “Christian Jew.” I had been a believer for almost twenty years before meeting Geri. In South Africa, after being introduced to the Zionist Movement by a fellow Art student who was a sabra Israeli, I’d traveled to Israel. For over a decade I’d taught Religious Education and Fine Art and had also held two major one-woman art exhibitions entitled “Maranatha” and “Alpha and Omega” respectively. Yet, in my fortieth year, Geri made me realize just how little I understood of the Bible’s inherent “Jewishness.” For me, it was this unique mentor, with her boundless enthusiasm and encouragement, who opened the door into the world of Messianic literature, music, and art. While working on Geri’s commissions, I began keeping a written record of what I was discovering about the Messianic perspective. She was usually deeply engrossed in the Word itself and documented her findings by selecting biblical quotes and then rearranging them in such a way as to express her ideas. Together, we eventually produced a series of studies: the “Stonewood Hebrew Studies.” They constituted a second important phase in an exhilarating learning process; further evidence of an extraordinarily creative period in our lives. These experiences would become the springboard for Return to the Fountainhead of the Faith. After Geri left the park, I worked alone. For the next five-and-a-half years, while pertinent imagery was being created, fascinating “abandoned” Hebrew treasures were methodically sought out and documented. At that time the Messianic Movement was still in its infancy—it only started to emerge in the late 1960s -- and information reflecting the Jewish origins of the Faith was relatively scarce. Messianic ministries tended to publish newsletters and “booklets” rather than books—and these were not always available to the general public. In addition, cultural differences between Jews and Gentiles often made their writings somewhat unintelligible to curious Gentiles. I hoped that my writing and illustrations would help bridge that gap.