Joan (Washburn) Cole

Joan Washburn Cole, 84, of Mansfield, CT, passed away on March 28, 2018. Joan was born in Springfield, MA on November 5, 1933 to Luther Washburn and Olive McKerrigan. Joan was a lithographer whose prints had been exhibited throughout the Northeast. She graduated from the Massachusetts College of Art and studied printmaking at the University of Massachusetts, University of Connecticut, University of New Mexico and at the Tamarind Institute of Lithography in Albuquerque, NM. She was an Associate Printmaker at Discover Graphics, The Torpedo Factory, Alexandria, VA until 1993 when she established Geaster Printmaking Studio in Mansfield, CT with her friends and fellow printmakers Janine Gugler and Ethel Warkov. In addition to her art, Joan was an educator and taught art in public and private schools, including as an adjunct lecturer at the University of Hartford Art School. Joan met George F. Cole during the summer of 1953, and the couple married in 1957. She and George raised two sons and traveled the world together. George died in 2015. Joan is survived by her son, David, daughter-in-law, Holly-Jean and granddaughters, Piper and Reed of Marblehead, MA; son, Jonathan and daughter-in-law Marisol Deluna of New York, NY; her sister, Eleanor (Washburn) Cobleigh of Agawam, MA, and her brother, John Washburn and sister-in-law Dorothy of San Diego, CA. The family is planning a Memorial Service for May. There will be a private interment.