THOMAS ROACH – CLOTH AND CONNECTION

While a quilt is typically defined as three layers stitched together, I believe that the result is vastly more than the simple sum of the component materials. There are a myriad of layers of meaning, memory and connection that at first don’t seem visible, but are often transmitted anyway by the visual and tactile experience. Such is the power of cloth. As quilters, weavers, fibre artists and lovers of textile we know this. Imagine opening that experience up to a community to (re)discover together. Join Vancouver textile artist Thomas Roach (www.thomasroach.ca) to hear about his experience leading two large textile based community projects and how it has changed his approach to textile artmaking.

Thomas Roach is a Vancouver based textile artist who recently managed the (in)finite: spiritual conversations in cloth exhibition at Christ Church Cathedral. It is in that community that he created the Prayers of the Church Project (2016) and co-led the Common Threads Indigo Quilt Project (2012-4). Thomas currently serves as the BC Rep for the Surface Design Association.