susan c. dessel : works : FRANKELY SPEAKING Spring/Summer 2022

Dessel’s artwork based on research she did as a University of Michigan 2013/14 Frankel Fellow has been acquired by the U MI Jean & Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies. The acquisition includes: BRICK IN A SOFT HAT (Portrait of Martha Gruening, No.1),

2013, and BRICK IN A SOFT HAT Series 2 Nos.1-8 (Portraiture of Martha Gruening), 2014

(No. 2 is featured on the cover of this issue of FRANKELY SPEAKING).

Cover art, "BRICK IN A SOFT HAT Series 2 No.1 (Portraiture of Martha Gruening)"

2014

Stonehenge paper, archival ink.

36" x 18"

Cover art by susan c dessel

Dessel was the first visual artist invited to be part of the University of Michigan Frankel Institute fellows group. The year she participated, 2013/14, the theme explored was Gender and Jewish Life. Dessel researched the life and work of Jewish American activist Martha Gruening (1889-1937). Dessel’s artwork was inspired by a Philadelphia policeman’s description of Gruening, who after he arrested her referred to Gruening as “a brick in a soft hat.”

Dessel’s portraiture highlights Gruening’s many roles in life, including suffragist and journalist, and her activism in the early Civil Rights movement and in education reform.