Outsider Art | Floretta Emma Warfel | Biography
Floretta attended school through 7th grade. She married Grover Cleveland Warfel in 1932; he died in 1946. She was 16 when she was married, they had 10 children together, 5 boys and 5 girls and four stepsons. She lived in Norris Run, a patch in the Northeastern hills of Pennsylvania.
The inhabitants of this area; mostly hillbillies living on the government assistance, are a hearty, positive, people. Not poor because they have never had or wanted for much.
Floretta kept busy her whole life, tending to the family, cooking, quilting, constantly in motion. We do not know when she started painting with embroidery paint on cloth she would purchase at the Ben Franklin store in Norris Run.
Fortuitously, Ruth Stall, an antiques dealer in Scranton,Pa in the 1970's was driving by Floretta's house and saw her artwork hanging on her porch. Ruth purchased her work for many years although she did not create a market for her art.
Floretta was a memory painter: communicating tales of her life and times. Never one to be shy, she portrayed life as she perceived it with outrageous combinations of color and wild skies, her personal stories come to life with larger than life people, and multiple stories told in layers on her sheets.
The inhabitants of this area; mostly hillbillies living on the government assistance, are a hearty, positive, people. Not poor because they have never had or wanted for much.
Floretta kept busy her whole life, tending to the family, cooking, quilting, constantly in motion. We do not know when she started painting with embroidery paint on cloth she would purchase at the Ben Franklin store in Norris Run.
Fortuitously, Ruth Stall, an antiques dealer in Scranton,Pa in the 1970's was driving by Floretta's house and saw her artwork hanging on her porch. Ruth purchased her work for many years although she did not create a market for her art.
Floretta was a memory painter: communicating tales of her life and times. Never one to be shy, she portrayed life as she perceived it with outrageous combinations of color and wild skies, her personal stories come to life with larger than life people, and multiple stories told in layers on her sheets.