Keep Them Safe is the first editioned multi-plate etching produced by Cicely Creswell during her residency at Edinburgh Printmakers, awarded during the 198th RSA Annual Exhibition, 2024. This award introduced etching and printmaking to Cicely’s practice, and was an invaluable opportunity to learn and engage with this rich tradition.
The title of the work comes from St Winwalloe, or the ‘Church of the Storms’, in Gunwalloe, Cornwall. In the tiny church on the edge of the Atlantic, Cicely found a prayer for seafarers - those “who take to the sea, by choice or by force”. The ‘prayer’ was instructions for the making of paper boats, on which ‘Keep them safe’ was to be written, before the vessels were sailed out into the waves.
This work grows from that prayer, and traces symbols of hope, community and endurance. Specifically, gardening and shelter as sources of connection, life, and above all, rest and safety.
In the intricate details and storytelling of Cicely’s work, we can slow, consider, and discover the beauty that lies in the connections between us and the world we shape.