Doris Totten Chase - Midlife Evolutions

Midlife Evolutions

After 28 years of marriage, Chase filed for divorce, ready to live alone and devote herself to art. She moved to New York in 1972. She rented room 722 at the Chelsea Hotel, which, since 1883 had been a residence for artists, including Sarah Bernhardt, O. Henry, Janis Joplin, Jasper Johns, and Mark Twain. Dylan Thomas died there, while Arthur C. Clarke wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey there. Arthur Miller and Virgil Thomson were in residence when Chase arrived.

Impressed with Circles II, school administrators at Columbia University invited Chase to teach a graduate-level course in the film and video department. She declined, not wanting to be tied to anything other than creative work.