As a young girl, Barbara Fallenbaum loved creating. She grew up in Tampa, Florida spending a lot of time outdoors studying nature and taking in animal life. She would spend her free time drafting buildings and drawing birds. She fondly remembers trips to the beach with her mother where she would build sand castles and little villages. During elementary school, she won several awards for her art projects. In later years made her own clothing, even crafting patterns. Creating is part of her nature.
Fallenbaum followed a traditional education through college, obtaining a degree in Accounting, but she didn’t forget her love of art. She began to hand paint silk primarily as wearable art to counter the stress she felt from her accounting work. Her silk work was inspired by the work of Tiffany and other art nouveau artists. A prolific silk painter, she started selling her work at art shows all around Florida. The wearable art turned into wall art after a couple of years and transitioned to mixed media work where she combined hand-painted silk with watercolor pencils and ink to create 2D work. The originality of her silk paintings garnered her several awards including a Best of Show.
Art Shows became her way of life. In 1993 she became a full-time artist and moved into a motor home with her husband to do shows all across the country. Her studio size shrunk, so she needed a more compact media. She turned to glass enameling primarily as jewelry and loved the luminous quality of the glass. She would combine the enamel work with stones that she had fashioned into cabochons. As a jeweler she won several awards of merit and for Best Display.
During the years in the motor home touring the country she enjoyed a lot of time outdoors studying nature, in particular birds, a fondness she developed as a young girl. When she and her husband decided to park their land yacht she was able to transition into a larger studio and her interest turned back to her love of painting and to her love for birds. She was fortunate to have landed on a barrier island, and the reflections of the water and all the light bouncing around inspired her to turn to luminous oil paint. Everywhere she turns on these islands are beautiful birds and being able to indulge her love of painting Barbara feels life could not be more perfect! She seeks to share this joy through her art.
