This small town in the interior of Piauí has a population estimated at 20,360. Valença do Piauí is located in the mid-northern region of Piauí at an altitude of 309m and around 200km away from the state capital Teresina (IBGE, CNM, 2011). The area of the municipality was originally an indigenous village. In the early 18^th century Jesuits settled in the region to catechize the local inhabitants. The district was promoted to the category of town with the name of Valença in 1761 and to city status in 1889 (IBGE, 2011). In the sphere of Brazilian folk art, the municipality is known as the birth place of Master Dezinho, forerunner of the Saint-making art in Piauí, which influenced a significant number of artists, and also houses his work considered a benchmark of Piauí culture. José Alves de Oliveira, Master Dezinho (1916-2000), worked in farming and cabinetmaking, where he learned to carve, a trade which he left due to poor health. In Valença do Piauí he worked in other jobs before he moved to Teresina, when he was 45 years old, with his wife and six children. In the capital, he worked as a local watchman and set up a bar. In his spare time he continued to made ex-votos for payment of promises, as he had always done. His popularity in this occupation caused the parish priest of the church recently built in the Red Square to invite him to carve a figure of Christ for the high altar as well as the patron saint. Master Dezinho had his own aesthetic reference and would carve life-size pieces in cedar that, according to Lody et al (1988: 129), certainly “came from his Afro-Brazilian vision and hands, revealing aspects of the imagination of African projection in Brazil”. The artist’s work also highlights the regional theme, with cashews, foliage and typical regional flowers (Mascelani, 2006).