Edith Margaret Garrud (1872–1971) was among the first female professional martial arts instructors in the Western world. She trained the Bodyguard unit of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in jujutsu self-defence techniques. This painting is a study from a developing series of paintings focusing on historical figures that Hall feels a gratitude towards for their accomplishments, sacrifices and activism. 

Michael Hall is an artist and educator whose work is concerned with finding empathy and complexity in situations that are often polarized and oversimplified. As an artist whose perspective was strongly shaped by his family’s military heritage, he looks to add a more nuanced approach to necessarily critical but discordant conversations. Hall is a recipient of both a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant and a MFA Fellowship at the Headlands Center for the Arts. His work has been featured in group exhibitions nationally and throughout California as well as numerous online and print publications, including New American Painting. Hall received his MFA from Mills College and recently joined the faculty of the art department at California State University East Bay as Assistant Professor, Painting and Drawing.