Falkenstein and I met after I singled her out for praise in my review of the "Americans in Paris: the 50s" exhibition at Cal State Northridge, organized by the late Merle Schipper. In my opinion, Falkenstein eclipsed her male counterparts. So appreciative of what I wrote, she sent me a postcard and, for a couple of years, I hung out with her at her Ocean Front Walk studio in Venice Beach. Her guests were always asked to write something in her "friendship book." Shortly before her death in the late 90s, when she was in failing health and had lost her memory, I made a final visit, at which time I opened the book to show her the self-portrait I had drawn in it years earlier. Claire's vision was about the shape of the universe. She talked about "the never ending screen" and "structure and flow" with exuberance and optimism in her voice. She loved the way the cosmos works. She described that "heaven isn't upwards, it's outwards," bringing a scientific perspective to one of religion's interpretations of life after death.
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