Jesselyn Benson Zurik, a New Orleans native, was born on December 26, 1916. She attended Lafayette School and the Arts and Crafts School of New Orleans prior to attending the Isidor Newman School. There she earned an athletic letter and was on the staff of the Newman school magazine, The Pioneer. She served as its art editor.
She became a member of Phi Sigma Sigma’s Psi Chapter at Sophie Newcomb College, Tulane University’s coordinate college for women. As the chapter’s archon (president), she was profiled in the sorority magazine, The Sphinx. “Jetty,” as her sorority sisters called her, was a talented artist. Chapter correspondent Madeline Levy reported that their archon was an art major who started drawing at five years of age. Even at that young age, she knew that she would be an artist when she grew up. Levy said, “Our decorations at all sorority functions are all done by Jetty, as is much of the scenery at different Newcomb functions. She even paints scenery for local ‘Little Theaters’.” Levy added, “Jetty is Psi’s most active member, and lives and dreams sorority, always trying to better our standard.”
And she was multitalented, too. She played basketball, badminton and bowled while at Newcomb and she won awards at the New Orleans Winter Garden Show.
At Newcomb she studied with renowned art educators. Zurik earned a bachelor’s in design in 1938.
Two Newcomb Students, 1938
Before World War II, she worked as an illustrator for New Orleans stores. During the war, she was a naval draftsman at Higgins Industries. Her husband, Samuel Zurik, served in World War II and was an ear, nose and throat specialist. He was 94 years old before he fully retired from practicing medicine.
She later took additional classes at Newcomb and was a prolific artist. She did assemblage pieces, sculpture, charcoal, pen and ink and oil. In the 1970s, as part of experimental art exhibition, she decorated a 1974 Gremlin car with Mardi Gras beads.
Zurik exhibited in more than 250 juried or invitational shows and was the subject of 34 one-woman shows. She was an original member artist of the Glade Gallery in New Orleans.
A photo of Zurik before her 1985 show at Newcomb
Zurik established the Jesselyn Zurik Fund for Research at Tulane in 1997. She died on June 20, 2012 at the age of 95.
