Tom Sachs Interview: Advice to the Young

Louisiana Channel
Louisiana Channel
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Published 2019-02-19
“I became like a ninja black belt janitor.” The praised American artist Tom Sachs – who spent twenty years working as a carpenter and a janitor before becoming an artist – here offers advice to “everyone, everywhere, regardless of age, because everyone is a young artist somewhere inside.”

“The key to success is doing what you love,” Sachs argues, and you must keep trying until you find something that you love. Also, it’s important to have the right approach to what you do and – whether you like it or not – “do it a hundred percent. ” This is what Sachs himself has always done, committing completely to everything he has worked with.

Tom Sachs (b. 1966) is an American artist, who primarily works with sculptures. Sachs is widely known for his elaborate recreations of various modern icons, such as his recreation of Le Corbusier’s 1952 ‘Unité d’Habitation’ using only foamcore and a glue gun. Throughout his career, Sachs has built numerous space-related sculptures and his interest in space – in particularly the Apollo program of the 1960s and 1970s – resulted in his ‘Space Program’ in 2007, where he built a 1:1 model of the Apollo lunar module: A mission control with 29 closed-circuit video monitors and two female astronauts with handmade space suits. In 2007, Sachs launched his spacecraft at Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles, landed on the moon, and explored its surface – all of which was made into a video by Sachs and the Neistat Brothers. In 2012, he opened the elaborate Space Program 2.0 MARS exhibit at the Park Avenue Armory in New York. His works are held in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Goetz Collection in Munich, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, among others. He lives and works in New York City. For more see: www.tomsachs.org/biography

Tom Sachs was interviewed by Mikkel Rosengaard at his studio in New York City in August 2018.

Camera: Pierce Jackson
Edited by: Roxanne Bagheshirin Lærkesen
Produced by: Roxanne Bagheshirin Lærkesen and Christian Lund
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2019

Supported by Nordea-fonden


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All Comments (21)
  • @im0b
    The amount of gratitude ive got for tom as an educator is endless, his the best!
  • @MagicAnimal
    Two huge pearls of wisdom: do what you love; do it 100%. So simple but so spot on.
  • @erintozier8700
    "I could resent it or I could choose to love it" New life motto: wwtsd
  • @JaimeTosch
    Great advice Tom, about doing your best at any job you needed to do in order to live. I am probably oder than you and I too, had odd jobs even after graduating from the Academy of Art in SF. You and I must had great obedient parents in order to say what you said. I was a bartender for 3.5 years, a house painter for two weeks, a sales person for the mens department at J.C. Penney, graphic production artist and then eventually I started to illustrate for commercial and did graphic design work. My part time illustration led me to fine art business which totally different than the graphic art illustration. I believe now ideas are flowing my easier. My advice for anyone would be this order: your health, finance, family, do it one day at the time, focus on that art goal, keep learning and strive for 100% faith in your artistic work.
  • @thenickmurphy13
    Thank you Tom for inspiring other to find what they love. As long as I make enough money so I can do what I love i'll be fine, even if I make my money elsewhere.
  • @77777aol
    I am not sure of it was Louis Armstrong said, 'If you are going to be a shoe-shine boy, be the best shoe-shine boy on the street.' I was also a janitor - one of the happiest Summers of my life !
  • @jbratt
    I make shaker furniture 🤣 along with other things and I work hard at the “janitor jobs”. Tom has it right. I got a subway sandwich yesterday from an employee that was half assing his job. There are a lot of people he could impress every day in that type of job. It’s possible he could make life changing connections through the customers he serves or maybe his employer . It takes effort. One thing for sure the way he was doing his job he was going no where.
  • @rayjameson937
    I Worked oil fields, sold cars, i was a welder, worked in a call center. Did collections, was a paper salesman. All the while traveling from NYC, to TX to CO and now back to NYC where i am over qualified to be working as a parking lot attendant. But i love what i do, Why, cause hustling is my ambition and i potentially make more than $2000 in tips and outside services (holding and selling parking spots outside the garage) lol.... im just waiting for my big break thru, but i agree with this man, treat your first like ur last and ur last like ur first..
  • @99carrera
    Tom's mentality is really reminiscent Albert Camus' philosphy and the myth of sisyphus.