Contemporary artists share their personal talismans both made and found
It sails me to the river’s edge when I need to understand the universe / takes me past buildings blocking sight and opens vistas that no one can own / Incalculable views of Jersey, Brooklyn, Queens and Lady Liberty whispers, “You’re a millionaire” / power comes through my feet as I pedal meeting the rising sun / no one is out by the water and I hear—“this morning is yours” / This black metal frame changes moods / shuts down depression / compels creative thinking as I whirl over bridges collecting city lights of the night / These wheels whiz me through neighborhoods smelling foods, seeing people from lands innumerable / Lebanon, Italy, Ethiopia, China, Mexico, Ireland, Russia, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Greece, and on / Heading home it gets me through Hell’s Gate unscathed up into the Bronx where time settles, suns set, and we brake to recharge.
About the Contributor
Lisa Ross is an artist and photographer who lives and works in the Bronx. Her work revolves around the liminal spaces in which faith, culture, and abstraction meet, and she describes her work as a portrait of a landscape and a landscape of a portrait. Her first museum exhibition, Living Shrines of Uyghur China, took place at the Rubin Museum of Art in 2013 and was accompanied by a book of the same name. Ross is a grantee of the Asian Cultural Council and a Bronx Museum AIM recipient.
