William Acheff Art of the West article

TIME FOR A CHANGE

By Nancy Gillespie

About 15 minutes north of Taos, New Mexico, Highway 522 stretches straight as an arrow across mesa land. On both sides of the road, the increasing development of a once rural area are evident, a state of affairs denigrated by natives. Privacy and a sense of serenity is a high priority for most Taos residents.
The route to William Acheff s home and studio stands as a metaphor for his life: a couple of twists and turns, then a remarkably straight shot to the pinnacle of success. But, at his peak as a well known and highly regarded painter, Acheff senses imminent change in his work. Rather than force or manipulate those changes, however, he is willing to permit them to assume their own form and direction.
Pointing to a still life on his easel, a small oil of tangerines so real and so tangible they seem almost leap off the canvas, Acheff says, "I've been doing this for 28 years." 'Me implication in his statement is simple: It's time for change.
Such acceptance is often anathema to artists whose continuing success is wholly dependent on a style coveted by their collectors. They can be literally trapped in the style to which their public has become accustomed and, sometimes, criticized by their peers.
But change is implicit in growth, and Acheff is not one to rest on his laurels ad nauseam. "I used to paint every day, but the last year I'm painting less," he says. "I'm looking for something different, so it seemed natural to back off a little and reflect. I'm ready to paint other things. I've had ideas for 20 years that will eventually come to fruition. For the time being, I want to take a breather and think about what I want to do. Regardless of the direction, I'll employ the same basic premise that's been behind all of my art: light, shade, shadow, and reflection."
Whatever the nature of the change, when it manifests itself, there's no doubt Acheff will pour his heart and soul into it. He has adapted time and again to startlingly different environments and circumstances. Change is no stranger to the Alaska-born artist.
'We left for San Francisco, when I was 5," Acheff says. "I had been raised in a little town of 200 peoplethere are probably 600 now-a town in the middle of nowhere, the place where my mother was born. I spent my first five years with outhouses and hand pumps, so when we moved to San Francisco, I was in culture shock."
Acheff adjusted and, for the next 20 years, lived in the Bay area. On some undefined level, however, change was in the wind. "A friend who sold art all over the country mentioned Santa Fe, told me about all the artists there, and suggested a gallery that might be interested in my work," Acheff says. "I wanted to leave California, where everything was money, money, money, and I didn't feel I was getting any support at being an artist. I was changing, too, becoming more inward, and there were too many distractions."
The timing was right. Three months later, Acheff and his girlfriend were in Santa Fe, looking for a place to rent. When they didn't find anything that met their needs, they drove to Taos. 'We arrived on the day the local paper comes out, checked the ads, and found a place we liked," Acheff says.
The girlfriend eventually returned to San Francisco, but Acheff settled in. "I was 26, when I came to Taos in 1973, and I'd been painting for only four years," he says. "I was selling my work to a dealer in LA., showing in San Francisco and Santa Rosa."
One might think, "so much, so young," but Acheff already had explored a career as a barber that, oddly enough, provided the springboard for a career in art. Cutting hair put him in contact with a man, who would create an enormous change in Acheff s life-and turn a barber into an artist.