Treaster, who grew up in Lorain, Ohio, spent the last assignment in his Air Force tour of duty at Loring AFB in Limestone, Maine, as a draftsman for the Strategic Air Command. It was there that he learned to be a surveyor, and his fascination with cartography began. It was also a useful skill to bring back to Cleveland after his service. He joined a civil engineering firm working as a surveyor to pay his way through the Cleveland Institute of Art. After he received his B.F.A. in 1961, his career as a full-time artist began. Treaster has never had to submit to the creative compromise of a "day job," but has always been able to make his living as an artist. He was on the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Art from 1966 to 1980, but curtailed his teaching activities as his schedule of exhibitions grew. Now in his 70s, Treaster looks back at his exhibition career and says, "It's so monumental to try to do a one-man show--now I wouldn't even consider it,." where in the early 1980s, he was doing one or two each year.