Cayman: The Story Behind ‘Home to Parking Lot’ – Gordon J Solomon
From Solomon Studio, Cayman Brac
“Home to Parking Lot” painting, featured in the
Scotia Bank Caribbean 2026 Calendar.
A House is Not Just a Property
| The Story Behind the Canvas |
| Featured in the Scotia Bank Caribbean 2026 Calendar, ‘Home to Parking Lot’ is more than a painting; it is a twenty-four-year archive of my life. This artwork depicts the family home where my father lived for half a century, a sanctuary that stood until the land was sold for inheritance. It captures the bittersweet transition from a place of deep roots to a space of functional emptiness. |
| Through this narrative, I explore the universal struggle of family survival and the emotional toll of seeing a physical foundation vanish. It is a story of loss, but also of the resilience that remains when the walls are gone. |
| The Calendar of Memory |
| This piece serves as a monthly reminder in the 2026 calendar that our histories are built on both stone and spirit. We invite you to reflect on your own connection to ‘home’ and the legacy left behind |
This is a painting of my family home, where I lived for twenty four years and where my father lived for fifty years, until his sibling came for their inheritance money, by selling this land, our home. This was home to me and four siblings. It was where I was raised by a single Father, a labourer, builder and mechanic. We, like others, have had land pulled from under us.
I find myself returning as if to find the place I once knew, home. I have seen this “return to the parking lot” in others lives also, thus we share this sad dispossession.
I kept returning to this place for two weeks after it was dimolished with the intent to the find the home where I once lived.
This began the many “weeks of mirage”- an endless search for home.
I knew it was once there, but I couldn’t accept that it had disappeared.
The world needs to know that Cayman has adopted a process of dispossession.
Resilience in Dispossession
Art has the unique power to turn a parking lot back into a home, if only for a moment. We hope this story resonates with your own journey of anchoring identity amidst change.
© 2024 Gordon Solomon Fine Art. All rights reserved.
