Perhaps the most unique among San Diego’s enamelists Kay Whitcomb achieved national recognition and accolades for her work during the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Her work often featured fanciful figurative elements, strong geometric structure and words, phrases and quotations. Her unique aesthetic, combined with many innovative techniques like her chemical crust put her in a class by herself.
Whitcomb was born in 1921 in Arlington, MA and studied at Rhode Island School of Design (193-42) and Cambridge School of Art. In 1944 she joined the United States Marine Corps Women’s Reserve at Camp Pendleton. After WWII, she apprenticed with Doris Hall in Cleveland (1946), and with a GI loan, she opened her first enameling studio in Winchester, MA. In 1948 three of her enamel works were juried into the Syracuse Ceramic National.
Whitcomb moved to San Diego with her two children (in 1954) and began teaching at the Art Center in La Jolla (in 1956). The first enamel teacher in San Diego, she remained in La Jolla until 1990 when she returned to Massachusetts. While in town she served as a board member of the Southern California Designer-Craftsmen and the San Diego Art Guild (president 1968-69) and also a member of the Allied Craftsmen of San Diego. She was a founder of the Enamel Guild West and made many trips to Europe where she was guest enameller at Gustavberg, Sweden in 1969 and Crahait, Belgium during the early 1970s. These industrial residencies allowed her to develop singular methods for architectural enamels on steel which required only one firing.
Among her many large-scale works produced at Crahait Emailleries in Gosselies, Belgium, was a pair of doors which were shown at California Design 11 at the Pasadena Art Museum in 1971.
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