Florence Ware was born to a prominent architect, Walter E. Ware, and his wife, Jennie M. Hartley, in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1891.  A multifaceted artist, she worked as a painter, illustrator, costume designer, interior designer, and muralist.  She died in Salt Lake City in 1972.

Ware graduated from the University of Utah when she was 22 years old.  Following her graduation, she studied at the Art Institute of Chicago graduating first in her class.  After an 18-month tour of Europe and the Near East, she became an instructor of art at the University of Utah where she taught for the next 25 years.

As an artist, she was especially intrigued by the concepts of color and by natural and reflected light.  As a decorator, she arranged interiors, fabrics, gardens, and nature to the best advantage for a work of art. In the late 1920s, Ware painted a five-panel mural for the Laramie, Wyoming school auditorium.  Brilliant colors and life-sized figures characterize the series of panels representing every period in Wyoming state history.  Another important work is her WPA–sponsored murals depicting the history of arts in the western world which she painted at Kingsbury Hall on the University of Utah campus.  Ware also painted subjects on a smaller scale—landscapes and figure studies expressing women’s daily lives.

Ware’s work was recognized with local awards—the Purchase Prize, Utah Art Institution (1928) and an honorary at the Springville Museum of Art (1931).  She had a solo exhibition at the Art Barn in Salt Lake City in 1942.