Early Years
Chase was born Doris Mae Totten, the only daughter of a Seattle attorney. She attended Ravenna Grade School, and graduated from Roosevelt High School in 1941. She studied architecture at the University of Washington and pledged Chi Omega before dropping out of college in 1943 to marry Elmo Chase, a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy.
She had become seriously ill after Gary's birth, suffering what was then termed a "nervous breakdown." The cause of the emotional collapse was clear to her: "I was doing everything except what I wanted to do, which was to paint." Encouraged by a counselor, she began to take time to paint. She studied oil painting briefly with the Russian artist Jacob Elshin, and with the Greek artist Nickolas Damascus. She took a class with Northwest artist Mark Tobey. She was very encouraged when, in 1948, one of her paintings was accepted into the Northwest Annual Exhibition.
When son Gary was 3 years old, and Doris was pregnant again, Elmo contracted polio and became almost totally paralyzed. At the same time, they were building a house (Doris Chase was the architect) that was two-thirds finished. To support the family, Chase taught painting and design at Edison Technical School; art collector Virginia Wright was one of her students. Chase was accepted into Women Painters of Washington in 1951. Chase remained a member until the mid-1960s.
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