Day trip to Guadalajara to visit the vast public plazas festooned with significant historical figures. Here is one of them: Beatriz Hernandez, a founder of the city which is now the second largest in Mexico. Also, a second Beatriz, Jane Beatrice Wegscheider, Executive Director of the Art Garden, Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, who was my travel companion for the day.

Spending time on the plaza - quiendo pasar. In Spanish, when you spend time, time passes through you...not at all like spending money.

Chapala's plaza doesn't have to work hard to do its job. A good mix of national character with public space.

Austin Kleon, in his book, "How to Steal Like an Artist", has sound advice for artists: Don't be shy about your inspiration.

Every artist "steals" ideas and inspiration, above all, from other artists...

...Asa Cheffetz was a master wood engraver (1920s-1940s). Included in his work are many classic Vermont landscapes -- arrangements of fields, buildings, forests, and mountains that evoke hard work, and tidiness, against the backdrop of a powerful nature.

How would others have interpreted this?

How might have Franz Marc, inspirational force of Der Blaue Reiter, interpreted Vermont? In this painting, with modest skill, I bring Marc to Vermont. 

Not me, Kelvin Villanueva. He is featured in The Deported, an article in today's New York Times Magazine. An undocumented immigrant, he came to the US to escape the gangland of San Pedro Sula, Honduras, the city with the world's highest homicide rate.

During his 15 years in the US he had married, adopted his wife's two children and had two children with her. He had risen to become a supervisor of a carpentry crew, and had paid taxes throughout. One night, returning after a 14-hour workday, he was pulled over for a broken taillight.

With no papers, he was imprisoned, and eventually sent back to San Pedro Sula. His wife is now a single parent of 4 children. Kelvin has exhausted his savings exploring every legal means to reunite with his family. His best option now is to try another cross-border trip to the north.

A broken taillight. A broken system.