Atlantis and the TideKeepers Revealed Through the Magic of Sculptor Elisa Vanelli’s Hand
After Water has informed sculptor Elisa Vanelli’s work since she arrived in Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA, by way of Provence, France in 2021. For her, water symbolizes divine guidance and life force. Its influence was on full display in Vanelli’s light-saturated studio on an unusually warm day this fall in the form of Vivienne, a work-in-progress depicting a hybrid of swan and woman. Circling the commissioned piece, Vanelli dampened the life-sized waterfowl with a light mist from a water bottle labeled “Fountain of Youth.” Afterwards, she shared a printout of what looked like snowflakes yet were actually images from the work of Masaru Emoto, a Japanese author who believed water ‘remembers’ by forming geometrically balanced structures after exposure to positive words and sounds. As such, water bottles with labels like Chalice Water, Glastonbury, England, and Fontaine Saint-Michel line the shelf above Vivienne’s graceful form. Once complete, the sculpture will join a menagerie of mystical creatures that have sprung from Vanelli’s imagination. Mermaids embedded with chakras, sea serpents that transform into wind instruments, along with an assortment of other-worldly beings, make up her body of work displayed in exhibitions, galleries, and private collections. They have also earned Vanelli the distinction of being one of Art New England’s 2024 Emerging Artists and a position as the exhibition chair for the New England Sculptors Association.
Vanelli’s latest project, though still in early stages, is her most ambitious: Atlantis, a mermaid cast in bronze, will be part of the ebb and flow of Manchester Harbor’s tides. Secured to a sea wall in Days Creek off the point of Masconomo Park on Cape Ann, at low tide the sculpture will rise eleven feet from its granite base to the top of Atlantis’ flowing hair. At high tide Atlantis’ torso and tail will be submerged beneath the waves with only her head and shoulders visible from shore. “I dreamt of this mermaid that was covered by high tide and uncovered by low tide and that woke me up. My heart was racing. A little portal opened up, and this mermaid came through. I was like ‘Oh my God, is that even possible?’” wondered Vanelli.
Vanelli soon discovered other tide-interactive sculptures do indeed exist, namely Jason deCaires Taylor’s The Rising Tide. In it, men clad in business suits ride four horses along the shores of the Thames River in London. Says Vanelli, “I knew then, ‘Ok, this is doable.’” Within months, Vanelli secured approvals from the Manchester by-the-Sea Select Board, Harbor Master, and Conservation Commission. She also established the TideKeepers Foundation aiming to raise approximately $80,000 for Atlantis’ installation in May 2026. Almost as quickly as the project came together, however, it has expanded, with additional tide-interactive sculptures in the planning stages for other Cape Ann towns. Explaining the reasoning for the project’s evolving scope, Vanelli says, “I had another vision of creating a sea serpent, and his name was Arlo.”
A quick dive into the history of Cape Ann uncovered numerous accounts dating back to the 1600s of a sea serpent prowling the waters off the coast of Gloucester. “I realized that magic has always been part of Cape Ann and this amazing area…the goal of the TideKeepers is to bring back the magic that once existed,” says Vanelli.
Says Rafael Ramirez, treasurer for the TideKeepers Foundation, “We are adding another gem to the Cape Ann area.” He sees the project benefitting the business community by attracting both cultural and artistic tourism. He and Vanelli agree that Atlantis will offer a plethora of educational opportunities as well. Attending to lessons found in nature was underscored for Vanelli in 2019 when torrential rain caused flash flooding in her town of Les Arc sur Argens in the South of France. At the time, she had been living there thirteen years, painting and working as a graphic designer while raising her family with her husband who ran an international division of an electronics company based in Essex, MA. Their home was a short flight from Bologna, Italy, where she was born and began studying art as a teen. “It was the perfect house,” says Vanelli, though situated in a flood plain. In the aftermath of the deluge, she began sculpting and interpreted the tragedy “as a message from the waters that it was time for us to move.”
The Tidekeepers’ lessons will be much kinder and gentler, engaging diverse audiences on multiple levels. “The sculpture will be a living classroom, a site where students can learn about marine ecology and public art…on a simpler, joyous level, kids love mermaids!” says TideKeepers’ board of director’s member Jason Burnett. “[Mermaids] are the guardians of the tide. They are here to teach us to pay attention to it. They are the manifestation between human and ocean bringing back the magic and mythology of the ocean,” Vanelli adds.
—Pamela Ellertson