“It’s absolutely necessary to be an outsider as an artist”, Sam Walsh tells Brian McAvera as his current exhibition of figurative work at Limerick City Gallery defies expectations
Brian McAvera: Sam, you were born in London, of Irish parents, in 1951, but didn’t move to Ireland until 1968. So, as a boy, you not only had the good fortune to be in a major capital city, but by your teens, you were into one of the key periods in British culture, the so-called Swinging Sixties, which saw massive cultural changes in Pop Music, theatre, film, and the visual arts, as well as literature. Tell us about this period of your life
Samuel Walsh: The most important aspect of growing up in London was that, if you had an idea, you were encouraged to pursue it, not stifled. We were all encouraged to be different, and being different wasn’t thought to be odd. I was surrounded by bright images. The greyness of the 1950s turned into the psychedelic 1960s, epitomised by those areas you mentioned such as pop music and fashion. I wasn’t that aware of galleries, but you couldn’t be unaware of the social change. That stayed with me. I may well have in the past been discouraged in my ideas by other people, but I don’t seem to have taken any notice of them!
