Did Somebody Call? is a color lithograph created in 1953 by American artist Doris Meyer Chatham (1923-2015). This impression is pencil signed Doris Meyer, titled, dated, and editioned 10/15. It was printed by the artist on smooth ivory wove paper and the image measures 7-15/16 x 9-1/2 inches.
With Did Somebody Call?, Meyer explored the possibilities of non-objective form by layering soft textures, bold hues, and sculptural shapes to create a sense of movement and atmosphere. The unusual title gives no indication of the artist's intent, but lends intrigue (and perhaps some humor) nonetheless.
Doris Hoag Clark, printmaker, painter, and educator, was born in Toronto, Canada in 1923, and she graduated from the Rice Institute (now known as Rice University) in Houston, Texas. In 1945, she married German born Professor Heinrich Meyer, a linguist and Goethe scholar who taught at Rice. That same year, the Meyers moved to Emmaus, Pennsylvania to open a cooperative farming community with Jerome Irving Rodale. Doris helped edit Rodale’s Organic Farming and Gardening and Prevention magazines and assisted with planting his first organic garden, one of the first in the United States.
After divorcing Meyer in 1955, Doris moved to the Pacific Northwest where she studied printmaking with Glenn Alps at the University of Washington. Under Alps she furthered her mastery of lithography and, in the late 1950s, she travelled to France to study printmaking at S.W. Hayter’s Atelier 17 in Paris. She studied with Kaiko Moti and experimented with viscosity printing. During this era, Meyer had a brief teaching career at Everett Community College in Everett, Washington.
Meyer later moved to Marin County, California where she taught art history, drawing and printmaking at the College of Marin. It was during this time that she met and later married the painter, Russell Chatham and they settled in Marshall, California. When their marriage failed, Meyer Chatham returned to the Pacific Northwest.
Doris Hoag Clark Meyer Chatham died on 8 June 2015 in Portland, Oregon.
