BIOGRAPHY
Carla Falb began her Roller Coaster Series in the fall of 2001. No, she is not a roller coaster fanatic and doesn’t consider her work as literally depicting the specific rides. Instead, Falb thinks of her series as being more about the layers of metaphorical meanings based on the various coasters’ physical structures, sudden turns, extreme drops, and cyclical ride. She sees her work as a metaphysical journey that connects the complexities of our physical/ emotional existence with the spiritual realm. Actually, Falb’s interest in metaphysics dates back to discussions with her father, a Methodist minister, who shared his beliefs as well as his eclectic interests with her: i.e. the writings of Carl Jung and Herman Hesse, and music ranging from Beethoven to the Beatles. In addition to her metaphysical interests, Falb has a profound love of music and cannot paint without listening to her I-Pod. When she was growing up in Philadelphia, she spent many years practicing classical piano, and even auditioned to play with the Philadelphia Orchestra. These days she usually listens to alternative rock and describes her paintings as being a visual approximation of her play list. In 1983, after graduating from The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and The Philadelphia College of Art, Falb began exhibiting her Neo-Expressionist works at the Belanthi Gallery in New York. By the early nineties, her figurative imagery had evolved into curvilinear mandala-like abstractions. In the late nineties, Falb began post-graduate work in ceramics at the New Hampshire Art Institute, and in the following years studied at The Massachusetts College of Art and The Museum School in Boston. She returned to painting in 2000 while in the M.F.A. program at The University of the Arts, where she would begin her Roller Coaster Series, an integration of her previous bodies of work -- uniting representational imagery with abstract forms and concepts. Falb currently lives and works in Warren, New Jersey and serves as a fine arts teacher at Ridge High School in Basking Ridge.