World Homeless Day 2015: John Dolan on his journey from rough-sleeping addict to successful artist and author
East Londoner’s work now sells for thousands and he’s anxious to help others out of poverty
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The contemporary art scene is full of ‘street artists’ but few can claim such affinity with the pavement as John Dolan who spent 20 years sleeping, drawing and begging with his dog on them.
The former heroin addict and “not so petty” thief found himself transported from homelessness and thrust into the limelight when gallery owner Richard Howard-Griffin recognised his talent and put on an exhibition of his drawings.
That was in 2011 and Dolan’s sellout show at the Howard Griffin gallery was followed by a second, equally lucrative, exhibition and the artist went on to write a bestselling memoir, John and George: The Dog Who Changed My Life.
Life is very different for Dolan these days and he feels a strong sense of guilt about his past and is anxious to improve things for others to make up for his transgressions.
“I was a bloody criminal, a thief and not a petty one. I was opportunistic, I’d nick anything I could get,” Dolan, 44, told The Independent in an interview.
“I have stolen, stolen, stolen and probably ruined a few peoples’ days. No crime is victimless and I really feel it now. My art is all about giving back, trying to make up for it.”
Dolan and a friend from Narcotics Anonymous go around trying to help rough sleepers get off drugs and find support services.
Today he is back in his old stomping ground of Box Park Square, Bethnal Green producing a giant mural made with 2,700 fingerprints (and the help of some locals like four-year-old Max) to highlight the services of StreetLink, a mobile app which allows members of the public to alert local support when they spot someone rough sleeping.
The fingerprint portrait is of Dolan’s mate Victor. “Now, Victor is rock bottom homeless,” Dolan says. “You couldn’t get more destitute than this guy, poor old Victor probably hasn’t seen a bath in ten years, he’s crawling with lice and dirtier than you can imagine.”
“He comes from Russia or Poland and can play the piano like you or I breath in and out. He is classically trained and can rattle off Mozart or Chopin from memory. He came to England looking for work but got into Class A drugs and it all went downhill.”
Like the 80 per cent of homeless people in the UK who suffer from mental health problems Dolan’s problems escalated due to depression and disruption in his early life.
Growing up on an estate in Islington in the ‘70s, he discovered as a ten-year-old boy that his “parents” were actually his grandparents and his “sister” was his biological mother.
“That’s when my little perfect world fell apart,” Dolan explains. “There was no love on my real mother’s part…she didn’t love my father and smoked like a chimney when she was pregnant with me. By 14 I was snorting solvents and by 18 I was into petty crime. I didn’t trust anyone, my life had been totally shattered.”
Longterm reliance on cannabis and intermittent homelessness in his twenties meant Dolan couldn’t hold down a job for more than 6 months at a time. When his grandmother died he moved home to look after his ailing grandfather but their relationship was not good and his addiction and mental health problems spiralled.
“I self-medicated with drugs. Heroin. It ruined my friggin’ life.”
The East Londoner might well have fallen through the pavement cracks like any of the other rough sleepers who proliferate our streets. But his dog, George, whom he credits with saving his life, gave him a purpose and the pair of them formed an existence throughout his 30s sitting on the streets together as Dolan developed his art, his sketchy London skylines catching the attention of Griffin and leading him out of abject poverty.
Dolan can now support himself, he has a career, a reputation (he tells me) as an “internationally acclaimed artist and bestselling author” , he is back in touch with his family and has George to look after.
But he isn’t complacent and the lure of drugs and slippery path that leads to homelessness is not without its grip on him.
“The last few years haven’t been completely hunky dory. I have to really slap myself in the face and have relapsed a few times. The drugs. I’m about to come into some money [from overseas sales of his work] and I keep telling myself I’m not going to waste it.”
“I was the last most-likely person to turn his life around. But I did it because I wanted to say sorry to my family for all the trouble I gave them.”
Download the StreetLink app (from the App Store or Google Play) or visit www.streetlink.org.uk and alert Streetlink to the rough sleeper you have seen. By doing this, you will help to connect that person to the local services available
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