Herbert Mandel was my father-in-law. He was also a great artist. The majority of his work was Biblical, even though he would tell you he was not a religious man. Even so, he was inspired by the word of God, and although he is gone now, his work lives on, to tell the greatest story ever told – and hopefully inspire others as he was himself inspired.
Herb, as a child, had intense curiosity. He was born of German immigrants and was the youngest of three brothers, but the first of his family to be born in the U.S.A. His father was a man of many talents – he was even the leader of a group of singers who often gathered in his home to raise a mug of home brew while they sang German drinking songs together.
Herb enjoyed music lessons for years during his childhood, but before high school he migrated his talents toward drawing and painting, and the like.
He was a boy who would often spend Saturdays at the movie house. He claimed he would win drawing contests almost on a weekly basis. He relished the prizes and acclaim, and these experiences would evolve into patterns for the rest of his life.
After high school he attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art and the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Arts (now the University of the Arts) and grad school at Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania. He earned two bachelor’s degrees in art, and his master’s in education. It was one of these professors he encountered along the way that he quoted on different occasions: “Unless a man has read the Bible he can not truly be called educated.”
The student Herb Mandel took the challenge. He found that he enjoyed reading the stories and simply could not put the Bible down. He would say later in life that the stories came alive for him, and he could visualize the recorded history with all its beauty and horror.
All the inspiration an artist could want.
Over the course of his 90 years, my father-in-law purchased numerous Bibles and books relating to Bible themes, along with magazines – too many to be numbered. Art books and Bibical art in particular, along with commentaries and opinions.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, he made every detail a chapter. His paintings, with no words at all, tell God’s story, start to finish.
And when I think about the world we are living in, I believe this professor’s challenge is more needed today than ever before.
God is love, no matter what you believe. We are all sinners and only human at best. We must learn from history and not fall into the trap – our times are different. God alone is our judge and no one on Earth has the right to judge another man’s servant, as it says in the book of Romans. Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.
If we believe in a supernatural power that in some way created everything, we must then search and seek for the purpose we serve, and how we fit into that plan.
Herb Mandel poured his God-given talent into art – and not just any art, but an art that tells a story for all time. Follow his example now, and believe that if you seek Him with your whole heart, you will find Him.
Jim Robidoux is father of four, lives and works in Manchester, and writes about life in The Life Section – specifically, his own. He enjoys bicycling to work, urban gardening, exploring his Christian faith, and watching the Phillies at Billy’s. And he happens to be married to Manchester Ink Link editor Carol Robidoux.
