Great grandmother, wife, proud Corvette driver and professional artist Gretchen Amazeen said she found a home in AACC’s printmaking lab. 

 In 1989, 70-year-old Amazeen moved from Alabama to Maryland, where she studied art education and fine arts at Bowie State University and the Montpelier Cultural Arts Center—in Prince George’s County—before hearing rave reviews about AACC’s art department from a friend in 2006.  

 “I needed a press,” Amazeen said, “and I got so much more. … The community here is wonderful.” 

  Amazeen said she found her passion for printmaking while taking classes at the University of South Alabama to become an art teacher. 

 “I love teaching art to anybody. … I really enjoyed teaching K-6, because they came with motivation,” Amazeen said. 

 Amazeen said she loved art so much that during her first teaching job she created her own art program at Robertsdale Elementary in Alabama. 

 Before she started the new program, Amazeen said she had to clutter all of her art supplies onto a small cart and push it around to each classroom to teach students.  

 This tedious task, as Amazeen described it, required patience, much like printmaking does. 

 According to Amazeen, her longest print took 40 hours. “You really learn self-discipline,” she said.  

 Although Amazeen explained that printmaking can be a lengthy process, she described the printmaking club as “a big happy family. [AACC] is a great place to grow as an artist and as a person,” she said. 

 Swimming, hiking, tennis and “riding around in my Corvette when I really feel like smiling big” are others activities that Amazeen said help her grow. 

  Amazeen said she looks forward not only to the “Moods of Blue” faculty-juried art show coming this December, but also to her 49-year anniversary—on Aug. 12— of the day she and her husband met on a blind date.