about the alive + well dog project
When Jensen Parsons was five he scribbled a picture on a pad, and that was Boil the dog.
Boil went onto a canvas to make him more permanent, and all of a sudden everybody wanted to paint a dog canvas. It was extraordinary how different people expressed themselves, and that was the start of the dog project.
I contacted Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity, told them what I had in mind and they were very keen to be involved. As the pad Jensen had used was from the Hospital gallery and members club the next call was to David Hayes at the club and he too was very keen. Olly Barker of Sotheby’s gave his support, with hardly a thought, and we were set.
The rest has been fun, but far from easy. Almost all those involved are friends, patients or friends of friends and patients. And whilst Emma (Jenson’s mum) has been busily tracing canvases on the Kitchen table and sending out packages to people, the whole thing has spiralled into quite an event. Neil Campbell of Camber Group has given us this fabulous website and designed the beautiful book, being crafted by Matt Booker of Cousin. The book will be beautiful.
We have quite a few beautiful canvases by some very talented people, many of them well known. A lot of them are worth a considerable amount of money. Olly Barker of Sotheby’s will be hosting the Auction at The Hospital Gallery on the 31st January 2007 and we will raise a lot of money for Great Ormond Street.
Why don’t you get involved? You can see all the canvases and watch new ones appear over the next few weeks on this website. You can also bid for a canvas or buy one of 600 beautiful hard-back books.
Be part of the project. Raise some money for the wonderful people at Great Ormond Street.
If you think you can help in other ways and you’d like to be involved with the dog project or future projects then please feel free to contact us at dogproject@aliveandwell.co.uk.
I hope you enjoy the dog project.
- Simon Freedman
Jensen Parsons Age: 5
