Since then, Rand has energetically and ambitiously been illustrating the Jewish narrative as if attempting single-handedly to compensate for two millennia. In The Reconstructionist, artist-theologian Jo Milgrom has written of the dearth of new visual art in religious schools. The playful exercise alludes to kabbalistic numerology and biblical commentary. The paintings are lyrical and enigmatic. They are linked by color consistency but flow from landscape to still life to street scenes, figures in interiors and portraits, and coexist with abstract touches.
Black lines divide each canvas into irregularly shaped panels.
Only the Hebrew letters on each clues the viewer into the linked text. In black, red and gold, it is more somber than his other works and the words are written on the art in Hebrew and English. Rand uses the ethical will to find the place of religion and spirituality in art. But even as he explores another text of Jewish wisdom, he relates, amazed, how he learned not long ago that his visual commentary was being studied. One of them asked me who I was.