A moment to remember José Francisco Borges, master of the woodcut. Borges was Brazil’s greatest living folk artist, and Pernambuco's "Living Treasure", when he passed away on July 26th. Born in Bezerros, Pernambuco, in 1935, Borges was a poet as well as an artist. He worked in the tradition of the “folheto”, or chapbook.  He wrote, illustrated, printed and marketed his inexpensive pamphlets which recounted romances, crimes, comedy, tall tales and assorted pulp fiction in verse. Popular titles included “The Woman Who Put the Devil in a Bottle”, “the Football Game in Hell” and “The Prostitute’s Arrival in Heaven”. They were also known as “stories on a string” or “cordel” , for the way they were sold, pinned to a clothes line in the market.
International recognition did not come until Borges moved to carving his wood blocks in larger formats and selling individual prints. His work was exhibited all over the world, and he illustrated books for Eduardo Galeano and others. In 2005 Borges and his son Ivan were invited to the second annual International Folk Art Market, in Santa Fe, where I took these photos. A few years later Jane and I were among the many that used his classic image of a wedding in the Sertao region, “A Noiva Sertaneja”, for our own wedding invitation. Rest in Peace, Mestre.