Robert Ballagh outlines the approach that allows him earn to earn a living from his creative output.
Robert Ballagh is a professional artist, photographer, set designer, and member of Aosdána. He considers his work in the tradition of the Renaissance artist and patronage, in that he works largely on a commission basis. Other contemporary artists paint pictures in the hope that somebody will buy them.
It does mean that at least somebody wants your work and there is a definite purpose for it even before you begin it.
He refutes any claims that by working to commissions, he is in some way prostituting his talent. Many of the commissions he has been involved in have been extraordinarily interesting projects where the client is a part of the creative process.
They drop this little seed into the creative ground.
This episode of 'Hanly's People' was broadcast on 4 November 1990. The presenter is David Hanly.
'Hanly's People’ was a weekly programme featuring a guest in conversation with presenter David Hanly in a living-room setting for half an hour. Each guest was someone in the news, making the news, or behind the news. They were drawn from all spheres of public life, including politics and the arts. ‘Hanly’s People’ was first broadcast on 6 October 1986 and ended on 6 June 1991.
