Francisco in 1965. I had come across the poster
and I hung onto it until I had a good idea for it.
I loved the way you could see the folds of the
paper, because back then the poster came with
the album and it was folded up inside. I didn’t
want to do some hippie thing with a peace sign or
anything, so I taped the poster to the wall, pulled
out these two pots—one for daisies, the peace
flower of the era, and the other for marijuana—and
it evolved very quickly,” Acheff says, adding that
he liked the piece so much he set the price for it
higher than usual, so when it didn’t sell he had an
excuse to keep it. It now hangs in his home. “In the
fall of 1965 I was in barber college and this other
guy I was friends with suggested we go to lunch
at Macy’s and listen to records. Back then Macy’s
had these booths you could go into and listen to
the records. So we go over and he pulled this Bob
Dylan album out. It was amazing what this guy
was saying, the way he brought up the issues that
were happening. It was also confusing to me as a
kid because I had never heard anything like it.”
When asked if it’s difficult to paint in another
artist’s style—someone like Glaser, Leigh, Frederic
Remington, Charles M. Russell and many of the
members of the Taos Society of Artists—Acheff
shrugs it off. “I don’t think it is. If I can see it I can
paint it,” he says. “I don’t think of it as a different
style. It’s just light and shadow and color.”
These days the artist is still very busy creating
works for a number of galleries and museum
exhibitions. He still collects Native American
artifacts, especially pottery, and he’s still in
love with Taos. He’s also a pilot and owns
two airplanes, the result of an intense hobby
the began about 25 years ago. “I’m originally
from Alaska and one of my uncles was a bush
pilot. We lived in this town of 200 people in
the middle of nowhere. The only way in or out
was by flying,” he explains. “It’s fun and I will
sometimes fly to shows. The planes are expensive
and I could have bought another house, but you
can’t fly a house.”
Small & Sacred opens August 10 and continues
through September 7 at Nedra Matteucci
Galleries. A reception will be held opening day,
from 1 to 3 p.m.
William Acheff:
Small & Sacred
August 10-September 7, 2019
Nedra Matteucci Galleries, 1075 Paseo de
Peralta, Santa Fe, NM 87501
(505) 982-4631, http://www.matteucci.comProud, oil on panel, 9 x 7”William Acheff works on a new miniature piece in his Taos studio.