This special Event took us to Ona in the heart of Florida to Howard Solomon’s Home and Gallery, which he calls Solomon’s Castle. Howard is an 80-year old renowned artist, a painter and sculptor. The organized tour was very fascinating and interesting and the witty tour guide told us stories about his life and had a little joke to almost every piece of art. Besides wall art there are many pieces of recycled material formed into small and large items, such as a lion, an elephant, a chair made out of beer cans, a locomotive mostly made out of oil pans, copies of famous pictures from painters like Picasso, Matisse, Dali etc. made into wooden pictures and so on.

There was no end to the fantasy of Howard and his great talent to make out something of almost nothing. We all were surprised to find this hidden treasure so close to us. The weather played along and we all had a nice lunch in the “boat in the moat” restaurant and some of us concluded this trip with a nature walk along the banks of picturesque Horse Creek. Thank you to Hans Wenger for organizing this great event.

Text by Rony Huser and photos by Vreni Gerber