Tim Gaudreau

Tim Gaudreau earned an MFA from Maine College of Art and a BFA from the University of New Hampshire. He earned his MFA in both interdisciplinary studio art and critical theory. Currently Gaudreau lives and works in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

He is an eco-artist that is passionate about how the environment effects people and nature. It is his view that, "it is the responsibility of the artist to communicate a relevant vision about our world and society," He communicates that vision using a variety of media. Some of the media he works in are: photography, video, graphics and sculpture. 

Gaudreau undertook a project to photograph all his trash for a year. "Self Portrait as Revealed by Trash: 365 Days of Photographing Everything That I Throw Out" is a massive photograph work of over 5,000 images. The artist does take pictures of the things he recycles because it still takes energy to produce and recycle the product. The project forced the Gaudreea to change his personal habits. He said in an interview, “After photographing so many plastic bottles, there came a point when I couldn't bear to admit throwing out another one. I started by cutting back everywhere I could. I stopped using plastic and foil wrap in my kitchen; I started mixing my own iced tea from concentrate; Drinking water came from gallon jugs rather than pint bottles, then ultimately just tap water.”

This project inspired one of my pieces. I wanted to do something that showed that showed my eco-footprint. I don’t want my art to get too preachy without showing that I too am guilty.