GillesArt.net

Artist; Head Injury Survivor; Labour, Environmental & Community Activist; ex-Carpenter; Friendly Troublemaker

See Gilles' current works at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition (TOAE) at Nathan Phillips Square. July 10-12 2009 Gilles' bio Examples of Gilles' Art Favourite Links Contact

Gilles Arseneault hails from Acadia, born near Dalhousie New Brunswick in May 1955. After spending 3 years at U. of Moncton, he came to Toronto in the 80s to work as a carpenter. An enthusiastic labour and environmental activist, Gilles was an early advocate of green reconstruction as a major source of employment and real prosperity. He founded the first Environment Committee in the Canadian building trades—at Carpenters local 27 in 1991. With two friends, he founded Green City Construction and was lead carpenter on the CMHC Healthy House, 1995-96. At Green City, Gilles was particularly concerned with waste management, and was an advocate of deconstruction & reuse, rather than demolition. He served on the Waste Caucus of the Ontario Environment Network. Gilles’ artistic activities began as a student, but throughout the nineties he began to commit ever more time to his creative side. His works included some amazing sculptures, made from construction site waste—shaped, glued, screwed and brightly painted. His artistic and activist concerns merged in his work with the Mayworks festival of labour arts, for which he served as a board member in 1995-96. In 1997, a near-fatal fall resulted in a serious brain injury and a coma of several months duration. Gilles has made a partial recovery and has renewed his focus on painting, using his one good hand—his right one (he used to be left-handed). One of his sculptures received an honorable mention award at the prestigious Broken Fence Society juried environmental art competition in 1999; and his paintings and sculptures were featured at a Mayworks festival showing in 1998. Gilles has displayed his art at the Distillery District art show in 2004; at a special exhibition of his work at Yorkville public library in Feb. 2008; and at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition in July 2008. One of his works was also included in the Brain Injury Association calendar for 2006. An exhibition of some of his more fanciful work recently took place at the Creative Spirit Art Centre which has long been a major supporter of his art. He has been a client of the Community Head Injury Resource Services of Toronto for over seven years, and now resides at the Bellwoods Centre for Community Living (Dundas and Shaw) in Toronto. Gilles was also a member of the Coalition for a Green Economy for over ten years, until the Coalition's merger last year into Green Enterprise Toronto (GET).

The following pictures are a few samples of Gilles’ work, old and new, including a couple of his pre-accident sculptures.

One from his Creative Spirit Gallery works
Two Contemporary Works
Two pre-accident paintings
Pre-accident Painting & Sculptures
Contemporary works (2007)
Two More Pre-accident Paintings
Head Injury Assn. Calendar

A Few Favourite Links Mayworks festival of working people and the arts Creative Spirit Art Centre Bellwoods Centre for Community Living Community Head Injury Resource Services (CHIRS) Breathe by Association / Liefhebber Architects Manufactured Landscapes Apollo Alliance Green Homebuilding Halsall engineers/consultants (Doug Webber) Ocean Arks International  (John Todd) Grassroots Recycling Network WindShare / Toronto Renewable Energy Cooperative Energy Action Council of Toronto  (EnerACT) Community Bicycle Network Great Lakes United Grassroots Environmental Products Green$aver Building Materials Reuse Assn.	Gilles’ former construction company now operated by Peter Shepherd, (416) 535-6707
Gilles in 1992	Deconstruction Institute Waste to Wealth: EPR Michael Moore Ontario Environment Network Labour Council of Toronto Carpenters Union CAW Durham Regional Environment Council Worldwatch Institute Blue Vinyl:  My House is Your House Rev. Billy & the Church of Stop Shopping Seppo Leinonen’s amazing EnvironMental Cartoon Gallery Coffee and Cigarettes Blade Zone
Other Info and Resources: · A. Whitney Brown, “I Support Our Troops!”, YouTube · Aleksandra Mazowiec, The CMHC Healthy House in Toronto · Van Jones on a Green Pathway out of Poverty, YouTube · David Boyd, “Look Who’s Driving the Green Agenda”, Globe & Mail, September 24, 2003; article on labour’s role in advocating Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). · Michael Renner, “Creating Jobs, Preserving the Environment”, Chapter 9 of the Worldwatch Institute’s State of the World 2000. · The Worldwatch Institute’s Good Stuff Guide: a product directory Special thanks go to Joanne Schwartz (of Toronto Public Library), Pete Broadley (of CHIRS), Debbie Wright (of Bellwoods), and Jacques Arseneault in helping Gilles get his work to the public. Also to Ellen at the Creative Spirit Art Centre for providing invaluable resources—spatial, material and instructional—for Gilles at the Centre. For general information on Gilles’ work, contact Pete Broadley (of CHIRS), Joanne Schwartz at (416) 656-5449 and Brian Milani at (416) 968-1282 For art purchases, contact Jacques Arseneault at (416) 539-9039
[[[ webpage courtesy of Brian Milani at www.GreenEconomics.net [[[