In this essay the critic, pedagogue, and researcher Francisco Da Antonio (b. 1930) explains that—in order to understand the art of a naïf painter like the Venezuelan Elsa Morales (1946–2007)—it helps to observe, at close quarters, her daily tribulations, ideas, and thoughts as she, a woman from the country, anxiously confronts the challenges of the inhospitable capital city. Other critics, such as Perán Erminy and Juan Calzadilla confirm that the author discovered this painter and quickly recognized her talent. With no academic training at all, either in the visual arts or in a scholastic sense, Morales ignored the preconceived idea of folk art as an idyllic depiction of natural or social rural scenes, and focused mainly on the harsh, bleak realities of marginalization, such as police repression, political struggle, and poverty and, to a lesser extent, on conjugal strife, love, still life, and nudes. The critic Da Antonio discusses her technical development (from cardboard support to canvas, from oil to acrylics) that evolved hand-in-hand with an increasingly poetic tone, always in full command of her visual and verbal expression. This essay is valuable because it offers broad, critical, and detailed insights into the unique career of a folk artist who—in her greatest triumph—held onto her rebellious spirit until the end of her days.