For G (March 26, 2026)

I was sometime around 2014. I had gone into Johnny G’s, our local one-step-up-from-a-diner, when I spotted Gilles at a small table. I knew him first from the neighbourhood, where he’d been a familiar face for years, and from having mutual acquaintances in the dance world, because he’d been creating scores for contemporary choreographers. In fact, I think it was David Earle who’d first introduced us.

I hovered over him and asked him if he was into some company. He told me later that he hadn’t been, of course. He was immersed in reading and writing. But I suppose he was curious, and I was smiley and insistent – which is my method when I spy someone I feel I need to connect with.

The thing is, I’d recently seen his visual art exhibition at the Pear Tree, another neighbourhood restaurant where he was a locally famous waiter (for over twenty years, as it turned out). And although I’m not temperamentally drawn to visual art, as a rule (much more immediately to performance), his work jumped off the wall for me. The combination of whimsy and darkness, abstraction and figuration, the unpredictable colour choices, and the range of stylistic exploration made me think, “This is the real deal”. This is the work of a real artist. (There are not many – although, as he believed, everyone is creative.)

"Icarus" by Gilles Goyette / Oil on canvas, 40" x 30"

"Sky Reverses Symmetry In The Sun's Stomach" by Gilles Goyette / Oil on canvas, 40" x 30"

"Self-Portrait - Composition In Black And White" by Gilles Goyette / Graphite and gouache on paper, 19" x 24"

When I pushed my company onto him that day at Johnny G’s, it was the start of a beautiful friendship. That cliché is the singular best description, too. We ate breakfast/lunch together there for years afterwards, and when he needed a place to stay post-lockdown and the closure of the Pear Tree (and the death of its beloved owner), he moved into my living room.

More amazing conversations followed, and many delicious meals (he discovered he was a really good cook). Hours of Coronation Street and RuPaul. And sharing our overlapping, but also divergent interests: me, especially theatre, psychology, philosophy, politics, and grassroots music; him, painting, film, poetry and classical music. He was genuinely surprised when I said the 1950s B-movie (really, D-movie), Robot Monster, that he played for me was now officially one of my all-time favourites. (I don't joke about such things.) We were so different, in such basic ways. But we understood one another very well, and learned so much from each other.

Pages from G's notebooks

So, I just want to say you were right, Gilles – I do miss you. We all miss you. You knew we would. We’ll keep building your pyramid of words and ideas, though, with all the material you left us. Your work will live on, and your dedication to it will continually challenge and inspire us. And we’ll appreciate life all the more with your example forever in our minds.