2000年，林銓居隨家人遷居美國芝加哥，成為全職照顧家庭的父親。 當離開了故土，異鄉的土壤也成為檢視自己關於文化認同與生命經驗的對照。

這段期間，他開始意識到，過去描繪山水風景的方式已無法回應當下的生命狀態，於是暫時放下既有的水墨語言，重新浸潤於西方當代藝術之中，思考藝術是否能以不同媒介承載個人經驗。

美國時期的代表作品為《午餐盒》，現收藏於澳洲雪梨白兔美術館。這張繪畫源自童年家族記憶，在哥哥成長離家後，父親規定留在家中的孩子於哥哥離家之日只能吃白飯配鹽巴。畫面中的米飯與石頭，象徵異鄉重新浮現的家族記憶，也標誌著林銓居開始從描繪風景，轉向書寫生命。

2002年返台後，美國時期累積關於家族、農村與土地的思考逐步發展為《家族故事》系列。

In 2000, Lin Chuan-Chu moved with his family to Chicago. Living away from Taiwan prompted him to reconsider his cultural identity, family memories, and personal experience. He also began to realize that his earlier approach to landscape painting could no longer respond to his present circumstances. During this period, his practice gradually shifted from depicting landscape toward addressing lived experience, while he explored how different media might carry memory and personal history.

Lunch Box, completed during his years in the United States, marked an important turning point. The work draws on a childhood family memory: after his older brother left home, his father required the children who remained to eat only plain rice with salt on the anniversary of his departure. The rice and stones depicted in the painting evoke family memories resurfacing in a foreign land, marking Lin’s shift from representing landscape to articulating lived experience. After returning to Taiwan in 2002, the reflections on family, rural life, and land that had developed during his time in the United States gradually evolved into the Family Stories series.