24/07/2014 Meet the Author

John Dolan Used to be homeless, a heroin addict and a criminal who

spent half his life in jail when he was first sentenced at the age of

18. He had no job, lost touch with his family and was begging on the

street in central London. Then more or less by accident, he got a dog, a

Staffordshire bull terrier called George. He realised if he was going

to look after him he had to find a way to stay out of prison. His book

'John George' tells the story of what happens next. John discovered

the passion he had as a child for drawing, he started sketching on

high streets, pictures of George arrogant the buildings around him

which use old review pounds. An art dealer spotted him and that is how

John Dolan with a little help from his dog, became an artist.

John Dolan, this book is partly your autobiography, your life went

completely off the rails from a teenager onwards. Why? When my

grandparents told me they were not my parents, they were... I thought

they were my mum and dad and they told me they were not, that they

were my grandparents, that is when I off the rails. The women who thought

with your sister was your mother? Yes. It really affected you? Yes, it

still does. You took to preventing. Truancy, gas sniffing, sniffing

solvents, soft drugs and later on in life, hard drugs. You were in

Feltham Young offenders Institute from 18. 18, 19. A few years ago you

turned your life around. The person instrumental in that was George. You

got George by accident. What difference did having George make?

Why did getting him mean you had to get a grip? Because he was another

entity, a creature, something to look after, a responsibility I had.

I know he is only a dog, but they take on a stronger meaning than that

as you get to know them. That is what it all boiled down to. You

found a way of earning some money, in order to stay out of prison, by

going back to something you had done as a child, sketching. You sat in

Shoreditch high Street with George, sketching buildings and George

himself. There is a picture of George sitting there, incredibly

patient. You had a little sign you put next to him, which said, take my

picture by all means, but put a few coins in my hat or I might bite you.

You sold these sketches. You are doing that in all kinds of weather.

Yes, in all weather. What sort of reaction did you get? About one in

every 100 people would tell me where to go, but the majority of people

would wish me good luck and told me to keep on drawing. Always saying

how much talent I had. This was a skill you had as a child. A

naturally gifted talent, I could always draw, it was passed down from

my grandfather to me. The thing was, I had never used it or tried to use

it. I only tried to use it once when I was a lad, involved in... I was

asked to draw a picture for an advertising company in Smithfield. I

did not quite deliver the goods. That was the only time I had really

used my art. This is a photograph of you and George and a man called

Stick. He is a graffiti artist who draws stick men. That picture was a

tribute to him. He helped me in the beginning. We have a picture of one

of Stick's drawings. You can see why he is called Stick. How did you meet

him? Through my agent. He introduced me to him. When I met Stick I met

another artist. We were in a cafe which is no longer there. Me, Stick

and Thiery, drawing up plans. I did not even know these two guys that

well at the time. It was a month down the road I realised they were

and I was in awe of them. The village underground wall? A place

just off of Shoreditch. Chris has the rights to it and let street

artists do their thing on it. There is another book out this month by a

photographer called Joe Eckstein, London street art and graffiti, it

is called. It contains quite a lot of photographs of the people that

you met and collaborated with. `` Epstein. There is one artist that

seems to have done a whole street. Yes, a lady graffiti artist. I have

collaborated with her. There is another guy whose speciality is

doing stuff right up high on buildings, almost inaccessible. You

collaborated with him as well? Yes. Another one in the book I liked, I'm

not sure this is one you collaborated with. I met him the

other day and asked him if we could do something together. I called him

doing something on an alleyway. Until I read the books, I dismissed

graffiti art. Then you start to look at it closely and it really is

extraordinary, a lot of it, the quality of standard. Yes. I like the

idea London is an urban gallery. Some parts of it is like an urban

gallery there the masses. Richard had this idea of getting you to

collaborate with some of these people on a series of pictures. You

drew a huge sketch of London, Shoreditch and some of these

graffiti artists were encouraged to add their bit. This is one by

Thiery. He used to do that on the Berlin Wall, when it was up and

operational. It was his middle finger to the German police. That is

him doing his thing on my picture. A special space. Wherever Uganda, that

is the village underground wall, with the underground trains above

it. Buries another one, a collaboration you did with stick. ``

there is another one. And another one with an artist called Rowdy. He

was the first one to do it. Every time they came through the door,

because they were coming through the door on a weekly basis, coming from

all over the world, every time they were coming back to us we were

wondering if they would give more and more. This was the first guy to

go absolutely mad and go all out. It is incredible. It was suggested you

had an exhibition, your agent got you to do lots of pictures of

George. There is a picture of you at the opening of this exhibition in

Shoreditch last November. You can see looking at those collaborations

with other artists. Did you mind other people taking over your work?

Not at all, it was their way of paying tribute to me. They recognise

the fact I have been doing what I was doing. I thoroughly enjoyed it,

and I would do it again. We are doing it again in Los Angeles. This

was extraordinary, a very successful exhibition. You are now an

established artist. There is talk of flying U2 Los Angeles, you are doing

all sorts of other projects, one with Battersea dogs home. When you

look at the way your life has with Battersea dogs home. When you

look at developed, would you reflect on? I am amazed, I really am. I was

in a revolving door with my life, with the crime and homelessness. I

never thought I would able to be able to change my life the way I

did. If I can do it, there are people out there now who are doing

prison sentences, who lived the same life I lived. If I can change my

life, they can as well. John Dolan and George the dog, thank you very

much indeed. Hallo, the heat developed widely

today, very