Sugar Blues is a series of quilted fiber pieces drawn from aerial reconnaissance photographs from WWI. The pieces are produced using: an Irish linen, the same used to create the wings of WWI-era planes; logwood dye, the same used to create the blue sugar-bag paper common in the 19th and very early 20th century; linen thread and many hours of sewing by hand. This project was inspired by a story of wartime innovation from an officer in the Royal Flying Corps, whose commanding officer came up with a strategy to help his night bombing squadron navigate the inky dark of a pre-electrified Europe…
“He used to go out with the machines at night, fly over sections that we operated in and come back with the whole picture of it in his mind. He’d get big sheets of the old blue sugar-bag paper and used that as a background to paint in the various landmarks: roads, railways, lakes, woods— that kind of thing. When we were given a particular objective in any area he’d bring out his sugar-bag paper, put it up on the wall and paint in the actual spot we were supposed to attack. As far as possible he would make it like as to what the thing really looked like at night. We found this a great help because it was surprising how realistic there pictures were when we actually got over the spot.”
Westhoek 19 May 1916
Linen, logwood, linen thread, cotton batting
45” x 61”
Langemark 3 January 1918
Linen, logwood, linen thread, cotton batting
37” x 41”
German Salient 27 May 1916
Linen, logwood, linen thread, cotton batting
54” x 66”
