Gretchen Treuting, RECIPIENT OF THE 2004 ZIG AWARD

NOMINATOR'S STATEMENT
Gretchen is a serious-minded and thoughtful person with strong political views while also managing to be very funny, self-deprecating, and highly social. Having majored in philosophy at Bard College, Gretchen found there were no jobs waiting for her in the work force. She then got an Associate's Degree at City College in San Francisco in mechanical drafting and worked for a couple of engineering firms doing drafting. Although she enjoyed the tools and working at a drawing board, she felt creatively starved. "I try to infuse deep meaning into my drawings of pipe-fittings" she would joke with friends. To remedy her boredom, she taught herself graphics by informally apprenticing with a friend who was a graphic artist and soon began taking on pro-bono graphic work for charity organizations. She continued the pro-bono work as well as taking on paying clients. In the 1980s she was doing very well and greatly enjoyed her work. She was also one of the first people to switch over to desktop publishing, which gave her a competitive edge. In the early 90s she began having serious wrist pains and was diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome. She was told she had to stop using the computer. The situation was frustrating for Gretchen, as well as a financial hardship. After much soul-searching she came up with a plan to get a teaching degree in math, an area she had been interested in during high school but had not pursued. She completed the one-year intensive teacher accreditation course with flying colors and began teaching math in a public high school, but found the tumultuous atmosphere impossibly difficult, spending more time being a disciplinarian rather than a teacher. Depressed and disappointed, she researched alternatives and found a program that hired teachers to go into poor, urban public schools to teach mathematics using Socratic methods. This approach helps students discover abstract concepts themselves and make them their own. This worked out much better for Gretchen. During this time she also discovered that she could still be creative on a small scale by making books, and began a new creative life as a book artist. She has been in several successful book shows both in New York and San Francisco. Recently she merged her math-teaching skills with her book art and created several innovative, engaging math books.

I think Gretchen is an excellent example of someone who was able to react to unexpected life changes with a great combination of hard work, tenacity and creativity. With each unexpected change in her various careers she has been able to recreate herself as someone who gives back to the world in a positive, creative fashion.

2008 The Zig Award Recipient

2007 The Zig Award Recipient

2006 The Zig Award Recipient

2005 The Zig Award Recipient