Maria and I have fallen in love with  Bellow Falls, Vt., a profoundly funky former industrial town turning to artists and art to make a comeback. It’s working.

Every time we go to Vermont, we drove over to Bellows Falls and visit some of the galleries, which are almost always closed. You have to ring bells and knock on doors to flush them out.

The artists live in their subsidized, even free apartments; they turned a whole block into a living art gallery. Living in the town is wonderful, they say. Selling art, not so much yet.

When last there, I bought this painting of an old tenement house that lives along the canal that runs through the heart of the tunnel (Amtrak trains rumble underneath the downtown).

The town has more atmosphere than some of the old factory neighborhoods in Manhattan and eastern Massachusetts and other parts of the country.

There is something magical and alluring about these proud old industrial towns full of warm and real people. For years, these towns were in shock, all their jobs have gone to China and Mexico. Now they are fighting back.

These towns are mostly fighting to stage a comeback in the new global economy, but they reek with character and atmosphere.

While walking along the canal Saturday, Maria and I found ourselves looking at the house that inspired the painting we bought and love.

Here it is, a look at art and the reality that inspires it, courtesy of my new, new Leica: