1776: Queen Anne
Transference of the Sword of Light
Cape Ann, Massachusetts. May 29, 2015
‘Transference of the Sword of Light’. The Sword of Light came into being in Hawaii shortly before this photoshoot. A new level continued to unfold as the Queen appeared.
Written January 30-31, 2026
Today I open the beginning of what will be a sharing for the first time of all of my photoshoots, going back to 2005: 22 years of Landscape Installations, including 15 years of the Project 1776 Series. It will not be in chronological order, mainly because the stories interweave and overlap and the chronology is less important than the movement of Spirit. I hope you enjoy and come along for a wonderful ride in Year 2026!
In today’s post I am presenting images from my Landscape Installation Series: Project 1776 - ‘Queen Anne: Transference of the Sword of Light’.
Created in May 2015 on Cape Ann in the seafaring area of Gloucester, Massachusetts. It is an area where settlers preceded what came to be known as the Massachusetts Bay Colony. That area holds an extraordinary history of Native Americans, Vikings and early European settlers (plus others I’m sure!) The landscape is strikingly beautiful. The ocean is known to be at once peaceful and extraordinarily treacherous. The Project 1776 Landscape Installation photoshoot on Cape Ann is one of the most unexpected spiritual photoshoots I had ever experienced.
The Cape Ann Harbour near Rockport and Gloucester, MA. Down the hill from the Bed & Breakfast where I stayed. Stillness and quiet.
My initial paragraphs were written in the past few days and below that I have included a ‘Queen Anne’ journal entry from 2016 that I had come across just as I was completing my writing prep for this post, it was written nearly 10 years ago! I have no recollection of its existence and feel grateful it appeared to me as I post this blog. (Who knows what else I’ll come across haha)
‘Covered’. Ski Lady travels from the northern region to observe the changes.
How to bring Joy & Honor to this World, while Connecting to our Past.
I would say that Cape Ann is one of the places I ended up at on a whim, knowing nothing of the history there. And most importantly, many months of revelations would unfold afterwards. The timing, the lack of preparation and having come so close to not creating anything on that trip still holds me in wonder. This is one of the most significant and also largest (almost 500 photos) that I have ever created. By some miracle, minute by minute, it fell into place (barely :D) and the world opened up before me!
(Jan 31st) It’s the eve of a huge snowstorm bearing down on us west to east in coastal North Carolina. It’s a very rare event to snow here, let alone simultaneously throughout the entire state. I’m sitting at my dining table, glancing back and forth outside as I type, and I’m blown away by how similar it all feels to the Northeast and New England. It’s gloomy but invigorating. Antsy, yet inspired. It’s that amazing feeling you get before a snowstorm, once that white layer blankets everything and the silence appears, leaving the feeling of peace and renewal.
Tomorrow is February 1st and a ‘Snow’ Full Moon I think and it feels like the perfect day to release these words, my thoughts, musings, my huge antsyness! This lighthearted anticipation is bringing back so many memories from my childhood in New Jersey, the waiting for a snowstorm and not being able to fall asleep. Peeking out the window every so often. Or falling asleep during the wait and waking up suddenly in the middle of the night, running to the window. Snow. White. Everything perfect. If you have experienced that, you know there’s nothing like it.
Speaking of lighthearted…
I came across this cardboard crafted sign that was padlocked (yes, locked!) inside a glass window-like case on the side of a yellow 1700s era house in the Cape Ann area. It stands to be one of the funniest, most joyful recollections of that trip, any trip really. ‘Let Them Eat Cupcakes’. hahaha sooooo funny! Who made that sign!?!
Beautiful Mysterious Cape Ann, Massachusetts.
So. Cape Ann, Massachusetts. How did I stumble upon you all those years ago?
Some background: it was around 2013 I believe (nope-2015 ;) and I was housesitting for my sister for a couple of weeks. Before heading up to Worcester from New York City, I had decided I would do a Project 1776 photoshoot in Lexington and Concord (how fitting, right?) and maybe somewhere else.
I won’t go into all the details of why that didn’t happen, one thing I remember was tall grasses and tons of mosquitoes. I did visit some writers’ homes (Louisa May Alcott - Little Women) and an amazing ancient cemetery (I looked it up, it’s Sleepy Hollow Cemetery ;) but all the research and exploring went nowhere as far as discovering a photoshoot spot.
I started to get nervous that my time in Massachusetts would end before I completed a momentous 1776 Landscape Installation. I mean, it had to be momentous, it’s the site of the Boston Tea party for crying out loud, and in a lot of ways, where things began to unravel before the American Revolution.
As I have since learned, there were events happening in all of the states simultaneously, but as far as our taught history goes, there were many significant moments that began there. So the pressure was on.
Anyhow, I came across a ‘fishing village’ and since it was quite a drive from Worcester, I ended up booking a stay at a beautiful large yellow painted home from the 1700s that had been converted into a Bed & Breakfast. I remember the big beautiful room with the huge window, so much light coming in and overlooking the cute town.
The most wonderful cozy Bed & Breakfast that I found at the very last minute before I headed to the North Shore of Massachusetts.
Writing a Blog post during a snowstorm, about a project from 11 years ago!
(Back to today in Wilmington, NC) I just ran out to the local bakery (Little Loaf Bakery and Schoolhouse) before the snow arrives. Now home, a few hours later, I decided to track down the Project 1776 Cape Ann photoshoot pics for inspiration before attempting to complete my blog post. I pulled out my old computer and was airdropping ‘1776 folders’ to my new computer, when I came across a document titled ‘Queen Anne’.
It was a slow recognition, but I realized that document must refer to the photoshoot in Massachusetts. ‘How is that even possible?!’ I opened the file and quickly glanced over the contents. Sure enough, it is, I can’t believe my luck!!! I can fill in all the fuzzy memories of what happened.
All the writing above was completed before finding the Queen Anne document.
*I have left the Queen Anne writing below exactly as the original with no edits. It feels authentic that way, nothing I would change now could improve the honesty of what I wrote almost 10 years ago to the day.
So here it goes:
‘Merlin’s Feathers’ Project 1776 - Queen Anne
Is it the Destination or the Journey?
Written March 2, 2016
‘This group of the Project 1776 Series was completed in May of 2015. It was the natural progression of having introduced the Merlin Peter Pan character in the Hawaii Series. There is a merging of the Chemical Wedding and the Sword of Light, and unbeknownst to me prior to the photo shoot, the true meaning of the Queen begins to appear. Project 1776 brought me to this small fishing town, a town among other things, steeped in Revolutionary War history. What emerged and transpired on that day has added yet another layer of mystery and subsequent searching. After 5 years and just as I thought the Project 1776 series was coming to a close, this photoshoot laughed in my face and said, ‘My dear, you have only just begun.’
*Normally I don’t make public the background story of what transpires on a personal level before and during a photoshoot. This morning I sat down to write a few words and many more than a few appeared. Sometimes I wonder if the way I got to the shoot is more interesting or more important than the actual creation itself. I know I often laugh over those 'adventures' as well as wonder what compels me, against all odds, to continue on this strange journey.
Overlooking the Atlantic Ocean - Falconer Lady & Robin Hood.
(2016 writing continued:)
Background to Cape Anne Photoshoot:
I left for Massachusetts, suitcase and backpack overflowing with my crew. Armed with 2 weeks of research and certain I would find my spot to shoot at one of the many famed Revolutionary War locations, as always, I was in for a big surprise. I spent a very windy week driving all over Massachusetts and Rhode Island to no avail. Sometimes internet and Google do fail you. With the winds blasting at a near constant 20mph I had no choice but to let go and ‘be a tourist’.
I was moved greatly by these places filled with history, walking and eating more than my share of local cuisine. As the week wrapped up I recalled a time in Kauai (and Guatemala and Mexico :) where, after traveling halfway around the world, it was very possible I may go home without completing the photo shoot. It’s one of those things, if the stars line up the shoot is nothing short of miraculous. If not, there is no point trying to push that log up a sand hill. It will not happen.
‘The Gathering’ The Turtle Clan, Lenapehoking, travel to Halibut Point.
When Acceptance & Letting Go Open the Door to Revelations.
I came to grips with that realization, kind of gave up and decided to go to a place I had just heard about called the North Shore of Massachusetts. If I couldn’t afford to go to Hawaii, as I usually did at that time of the year, I was determined to make this North Shore my own Crown Jewel. I arrived in town towards evening, having spent the last 4 hours in the car. I unloaded my belongings at an adorable Bed & Breakfast in a small fishing town called Rockport and decided as a last ditch possibility (I can be very stubborn) to go check out this strange place i randomly saw a picture of, a place called Halibut Point in Cape Anne, Massachusetts. As I pulled up and slowly got out of the car, I could feel those chills of Anticipation. Could it, would it? I barely dared to consider that there was a tiny possibility hours before I had to return to New York City that I may have, I actually may have ‘Found the Place’.
Arrived at the Quarry with few minutes to spare, storm on the horizon as night set in. Hard to believe I woke to a sunny perfect morning for the photoshoot and last night’s storm kept most people away, so lucky!
I didn’t have much time, it was darkening quickly so I ran down the path until I reached the Quarry. ‘Magnificent’ was all I could think. Absolute beauty, the rocks, the platform, this was It. As I wandered towards the edge of this Quarry I noticed a rock hill and outcropping. I followed the path down and there, standing before me, was one of the most glorious sights I have ever seen, comparable to anything I had laid eyes on in Hawaii. I could see out in the ocean, not as far as I would have hoped, the blackest clouds and the faint spill of lightning over the ocean. Having spent the majority of my life near the waters, I knew that what I was about to do went against every thought, every knowing of the right thing to do. But sometimes, you have no choice, right?
Night before photoshoot, scoping out the spot with a huge thunderstorm coming in off the ocean. I barely made it back to the car when torrential rain and lightning arrived.
Sometimes the risk, for an artist at least, far outweighs the periodic idiocy of human endeavors. Keeping a close watch on the squall racing towards shore, I scrambled down the path to reach the rock hills overlooking the ocean. This Was It. I have learned over the years, if there is a chance to do a beforehand checkout of a spot to sort of set things in order in your mind, before I have knapsacks and bags awkwardly attached weighing me down as i make my way to the photoshoot location (One place that comes to mind is the shoot I did at Inspiration Point, Utah, what a mess that was). If a repeat of that near disaster could be avoided, I was all the more ready to take my chances with the storm headed my way. I’m most happy that i had. The area was large enough and required hiking and positioning. I felt out the different areas and left (almost dry) knowing in the morning before my long drive home, exactly where and how this photoshoot would take place.
This version of Lavender Lady at Halibut Point in Cape Ann was altered from the original in 2019 using photoshop only (no Ai used in the creation of this photo!)
That night, it was already forming in my sleep, the characters were already taking their places, it is those moments when you know you’ve connected to something, that something that brought you way back when to the pull that had compelled you to create art to begin with. Being reminded of that, returning to that place of deepest honesty and sincerity is something I couldn’t have planned or realized how deeply it could touch me. It was, to this day I believe, my absolute favorite ‘meeting with the Earth’. And knowing that there isn’t this need always to wing it, that sometimes the pull in your heart coupled with thoughtful planning of a determined individual, brings about the most creative and beautiful experience that can later be shared with the world. That photoshoot, after 12 years of this ongoing unrelenting push to create World Stories, was the one where I first transformed or merged my earthly self with my spirit. I feel on that day, the World kind of said, ‘Welcome’. “
End of “Queen Anne” document written March 2, 2016
George Washington Arrives at Quarry Point, joining Lavender Lady.
Click Here to See my Landscape Installation Art!
Every Day is a New Opening.
This is a wow moment for me. Mostly because I remembered things but after reading this 2016 essay, so much more came flooding back. And the reminder of truth, sincerity, taking risks and being an artist is so very necessary for our world today. The Gold World. Ha, more on that in another post.
Huge love to all of you and may 2026 be the year we all reach to the heavens and connect humanity to all the Greatness that We Are.
Dedicated to everyone, but most of all, to the Seafaring families of the North Shore Massachusetts. God bless You.
New cleansing light over the North Shore of Massachusetts
Note to myself - 11 years later from that moment (2015) when I thought my 1776 Series was ending, I am still going. This year, the 250th Anniversary, I will be writing posts about all of my photoshoots (I think there are 55 that I counted, so I better get on it ;) as well as a whole new Landscape Installation Series set for year 2026!
Related Blog Post: New Year 2026! - 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution