Seamus Furlong a hairdresser by profession but a sculptor at heart, has in retirement achieved a lifelong ambition to mount his own exhibition in bronze.
Seamus Furlong's hairdressing salon is a landmark in New Ross, County Wexford and prior to retirement he worked there full-time, making art in his spare time. But sculpting has always been his passion and he spent three nights a week for 25 years attending an art course in Waterford.
For years Seamus reconciled his desire to make art and his need to make a living, but now in retirement Seamus is free to devote himself to the art career he always longed for. Rather than seeing his hairdressing career as an impediment to his creativity, Seamus believes hairdressing helped him to subsidise his art.
Without my hairdressing there is no way that I could have achieved or arrived at any standard of art.
It was only when he retired from hairdressing that Seamus had time to create enough work to mount his first full-scale exhibition. His works in bronze include Dr Tom Walshe, the founder of the Wexford Festival Opera and Wexford hurler Nicky Rackard. However investing in such a large exhibition is a financial risk and Seamus jokes,
I might be going back to work again though if things don’t work out.
While it may be a daunting gamble, it is one that seems to be paying off as Seamus Furlong is gaining a reputation for his art and his work is selling well.
An RTÉ News report by Michael Ryan broadcast on 20 January 1987.
