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Diana Fayt

About Diana Fayt

A white crane dropped an inky haired child on a doorstep in Sunnyvale, California in 1964. Swaddled in clean rags, the child was absorbed into the bonds of a Hungarian family by the name of Fayt. The name Diana was chosen to honor the bright October moonlit night the child had arrived.

Diana's parents are resourceful people from an old world. Diana, an introspective child, watched her mother make clothes from whole cloth and assisted in hand cranking pork sausages in their garage. Her father, an intensely quiet person, was a tool and die man of great precision who later went on to make jewelry.

Diana craved independence from an early age and found a job at fourteen at a hardware store. It was a creaky old-fashioned store run by a fine Italian family. She enjoyed the small drawers filled with sundry nuts and bolts. In winter, she gift wrapped large household appliances with deft skill.

She graduated to spinning pizzas in Santa Cruz at the time of her emancipation. 'Mirror in the Bathroom' played on the radio a lot and people wore assymetrical haircuts, belts around sweaters and multiple rubber bracelets. Diana was not fond of this decade anymore than she was of the swinging 'find yourself' decade that preceded it.

It was then that Diana decided to explore her origins and traveled to Hungary. There she lodged with distant relatives and learned the language of her people with her six year-old cousin as her primary tutor. She explored Communist Hungary with a pack former circus stars who drove an old Cadillac, frequented burlesque shows and liked to "Boogie."

Returning to the States, she made her way cocktailing at a ski resort for cocaine cowboys. She lived on a mountain in isolation. She did not care for the snowstorms that raged inside and outside the lodge.

Fleeing with the arrival of the first thaw, she embarked upon a coastal bicycle trip with a bearded boy from New Hampshire. A year later they tackled the East coast, eventually reaching a fork in the road. Diana landed in Berkeley and became au pair for two toe headed children. It was while she was an au pair that she first set foot in a ceramics studio, visiting with another au pair who was taking a class. She knew immediately that she had found her home. She enrolled in a class but never finished because (in her own words), "I could never find parking." She attempted another class apparently within walking distance and completed the course.

Diana entered the California College of Arts and Crafts. She experimented with printmaking and ceramics and by the end of her four years, had initiated the course toward her present work.

Moving to S.F. in the early nineties, Diana has made her way as a server in restaurants while cultivating her artistic vision. Diana has made her home at Firefly Restaurant for a decade, where she is well regarded for her knowledge of corn pone and corn smut and other esoteric foods.

It is at Firefly where she met businesswoman Maggie Nugent of Synergy Designs, a ceramics wholesale outfit. Diana began designing for Synergy shortly thereafter. Her tenure with Synergy sent her back to Hungary, a factory in Hodmezovasarhely (Beavertown) where the Diana Fayt collection was produced. The work was imported and sold in the U.S.

Diana has continued to produce her own enigmatic work and has had solo shows in the U.S. and Tokyo, has been featured in several Japanese publications and continues to sell her work here and abroad. Diana is a member of the Clay and Glass Association in California. She resides in San Francisco.