Chase studied design at and graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago before becoming a stained glass window designer for an art glass company in Chicago; in this work she would often prepare water color paintings to demonstrate the design before producing a window.[5] Her later work was in oils. She would spend time studying a scene in person then retreat to a studio to create the paintings saying that she did not want to simply copy nature, but wanted to show specific light situations and to avoid mosquitoes.
In the 1920s she was a member of the Madison Art Guild, exhibiting works in the area.[12] Her work was also distributed through the Madison Art association to galleries statewide, such as for an exhibit at the Sawyer Foundation in Oshkosh in 1926[13] and at the Milwaukee Journal's Gallery of Wisconsin Art in 1929.[14] In the 1930s, as her body of work grew, Chase had individual exhibitions at museums across the state such as at the Little Gallery in Manitowoc in 1936.[15]
In 1933–34, she was employed by the Works Progress Administration's Public Works of Art Project.[1] Chase created murals for the Madison Public Library and the Bank of Sturgeon Bay.[1] For some of the larger pieces she created in this decade, Chase worked in a mixture of cement and oil paint to create "cement-frescoes" such as were created for the entrance to Madison West High School and some civic structures in Fort Atkinson.
