Carolyn Gasson Plochmann ~ Carbondale August 24, 2023

Carolyn Plochmann, a visionary artist whose creative spirit illuminated our world, passed away on August 24, 2023, at the age of 97. Her departure leaves an indelible void in the hearts of those who loved her, but her legacy will live on through those she inspired during her life.

Born in May 1926 in Toledo, Ohio to Mr. and Miss Edward Paul Gasson, Carolyn demonstrated an innate talent for art from a young age. She won early competitions and her dedication and unwavering passion enabled her to graduate from high school one year early. She then began studying at the University of Toledo, where she attended, and later taught art classes at the Toledo Museum of Art, one of the five largest in the country at the time. It was assumed that she would become a professional painter. Her preparation was completed in the art department at the State University of Iowa, considered at the time one of the best in the country. Her degree, Master of Fine Arts, was one year short of a doctorate.

In 1949, she began teaching at Southern Illinois University in the Allyn Training School for grade school children. She was met with resistance by faculty because of her belief that art was a way to open oneself to the world, and not just a time for creating Easter and Christmas decorations. A two-day visitor to Carbondale, author of forty books on the arts, saw a painting Carolyn had just completed, and pronounced her “A great artist.” He arranged with the well-known Kennedy Galleries in midtown New York City to include her in their roster of fine painters. She was with the Kennedy Gallery for thirty-five years, until it was closed because of 9-11. During those thirty-five years, she was featured in a total of fifty one-man shows, including nine at Kennedy in New York City. She later became part of the Eckert Gallery and WheelHouse Art gallery, who have notable artists such as Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenburg. The Archives of American Art in Washington, DC. has a large collection of papers and photographs, as has the Morris Library at SIUC.

It was in the 1950’s that she met George Kimball Plochmann, who had just received his PhD from the University of Chicago and was at the Southern Illinois University to teach philosophy to college students. She asked him to help her move paintings out of her studio, and he immediately became entranced by her art. George Kimball Plochmann taught philosophy until the 1980’s and worked diligently on a multi-volume book on Plato.

Carolyn’s work is characterized by dreamlike scenes that capture the essence of the human experience with unparalleled depth and sensitivity. Thomas Hoving, the former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art wrote,” her subject matter is human beings, or still lives which she treats in a compellingly moody and poetic way. Plochmann adores paint, texture, and the building up of complex surfaces of the painted material layer after layer… sometimes dozens of them…. illuminated with an occasional flash of gold leaf. Almost every square inch of her work is enhanced with fabulous harmonies of line and delicate nuances of color. The work has, almost an aura of alchemy, seemingly rational and mysterious at the same time.”

Throughout her life, Carolyn has been a prolific prize winner, including eight first prizes at the Toledo Federation of Art Societies from 1942 to 1968, the earliest being at the age of fifteen. In 1951, she received a purchase award from the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio, and between 1955 and 1967 seven purchase awards from Evansville, Museum of Art and Science in Indiana .

Beyond Plochmann’s artistic achievements, she was a compassionate soul, known for her efforts to end animal vivisection, and support various causes. Her kindness and generosity left an impact that extended far beyond these charities. She donated 70 paintings and drawings to the Illinois State Museum in Springfield, which arranged two separate one-man shows to be held at Rend Lake, Springfield, Chicago and Lockport in Illinois.

Organized religion meant for her the way she could organize her teeming thoughts about God and man and their intricate relations. She looked upon the power to create-art, music, science, and thoughts about the realities of life as the most evident and welcome of the gifts from on high. She and her family, and her husband and his family, were Lutheran.

She was a churchgoer in her youth, though after coming to Carbondale she preferred reading scriptures of many kinds and books on the philosophy of religion, hat one way or another found a place in her work, though she almost never painted popular religious symbols. Relation to the divine was to be felt, not seen, though her art was visual..

Her departure leaves a profound void in the hearts of all who knew her. She is survived by Evan Kimball Plochmann and Elissia Kimball, who will cherish her memory and continue to celebrate her extraordinary life. They are the children of her only beloved daughter, Sarah Kimball, whom she lost in 2017 to cancer. Her dearest friend, Sherri Young committed 15 years of her life to assist George and Carolyn with their ailments and eventually their decline. Carolyn spent the last week of her life in the company of this amazing person, who is considered part of the Plochmann family. The funeral will be with her husband’s family in North Adams, NY.

As we bid farewell, let us remember her not with sorrow but with gratitude for the wonder she brought into our lives.

Rest in peace, dear Carolyn. You will forever be with us.

Walker Funeral Home entrusted with arrangements.