Life is a Muse for Artist Sachi

By Fern Gavelek

Sachi, the artist formerly known as Karla Musacchia, has been an award-winner since the 1970s. Before that, she mingled with celebrities in Malibu, was Playboy magazine’s first surfer girl centerfold, and appeared in Hollywood movies. The 74-year old Kona resident has lived in Hawai‘i on and off since 1977, and her life has taken many twists and turns. What’s at the top of Sachi’s mind and world now is how she healed herself during a three-year learning journey after being diagnosed with a host of maladies including pancreatic cancer.

“I can now remember things, do 60 pushups—I have the energy of a 25-year-old!” exclaims Sachi. “My brain is bursting with all I’ve learned and succeeded at. I feel on the verge of good things for the future.”

Destined to Be Creative

Born in 1946, Sachi was diagnosed as having high-functioning autism when she was young. She grew up in California, among artists including her mother, brothers, and several fraternal family members. Her Aunt Evelyn of Laupāhoehoe, a rock painter, was featured in the May–June 2013 issue of Ke Ola.

“My family was all on the same page when it came to the arts,” Sachi recalls. “It’s kind of strange to have this genetic creative energy.”

Sachi claims she got a “sensational creative education” after she ventured out on her own and moved to Malibu in 1962, as she wanted to know who she should be and what she should do.

“I was supporting myself, working as a waitress, and saw famous people all around me,” she remembers. “I met artists like the writer Henry Miller, actors, and other creative people. I walked around and talked to these amazing people and learned a lot about their art and music—I was friends with some of the Beach Boys.”

What fascinated Sachi about those she encountered was they were successful, but “not even trying.” She says they were doing their craft because they loved it and the intent was simple and pure.

“I became the person I am now from the people I encountered in Malibu,” Sachi emphasizes. “It was their enthusiasm that most affected me.”

Discovered on Malibu Beach

On a beach day with girlfriends, 19-year-old Sachi was approached by a man who asked if she wanted to be in Playboy magazine. At first, Sachi refused. However, a friend assured her the stranger was a bona fide photographer and the teen allowed him to take some photos to submit to Playboy. Soon the magazine called and announced Sachi was chosen to appear as a surfing centerfold. She agreed, thinking she’d use the money to travel to Europe.

“We went to the beach and I did some acrobatic surfing shots—it was a lot of fun— and there were some topless shots too, but the focus was about me being a surfer,” details Sachi. The photo spread appeared in the April 1966 issue.

During this time Sachi got married and lived with poet husband Jon Woodjack and friends at the famed Positano’s Coffee House—a gathering place for A-listers and artists—on the cliffs of Malibu Beach. One roommate, a sister to Mia Farrow, brought home celebrities like Marlon Brando and Peter Sellers.

Movies, Motherhood and Soft Sculptures

After Sachi and Jon traveled to Europe and Africa, Sachi gave birth to her only child, Aaron Marcus, in London. Soon after, the William Morris talent agency recruited her to be in movies and she was given roles with small speaking parts. She was cast in a number of teen flicks and appeared with Annette Funicello, Frankie Avalon, and Fabian in Fireball 500.

“It was kind of fun, but exhausting, and I couldn’t stand the lecherous men,” Sachi says of her film days. “I was the cute girl in the background.”

Sachi was also called to be a Playboy Bunny in Denver but said she had a baby in tow and “hated the life of a Bunny.” By then in her early 20s, Sachi moved to Penngrove, California, where she lived on a farm and reunited with her husband, who was running the seasonal Renaissance Pleasure Faire. Sachi enjoyed the performing troupe of Fellini-esque period characters: artists, wenches, jugglers, and Shakespearean actors. In addition to caring for her son and “living off the land,” she stayed occupied with creative endeavors: knitting, crocheting, and producing leather goods with the help of a treadle sewing machine.

Sachi’s art career began in the early 80s when she created whimsical, soft “life sculptures” that were carried by Circus Circus in Las Vegas and New York toy retailer FAO Schwartz. Her 30-inch sculpture likeness of Hugh Hefner was featured in the December 1982 issue of Playboy.

Channeling Grief into Painting

Tragedy hit in 1987 when her son Aaron died of a brain tumor. Sachi channeled her grief into art and started painting, saying the process restored her, enabling her to do something “without really knowing how.”

Sachi explains her son’s death left her depressed and withdrawn. “But it was almost like a blessing in a way, as when I’m painting I get in the zone…I feel like my hands are being used…it’s like I’m watching my hands and a muse is in charge,” she continues.

By 1997, Sachi had created over 600 paintings and soft sculptures. Her characteristically bold portraits of 60s rock stars for the 25th Anniversary Rock & Roll commemorative calendars gained her the American Advertising Federation’s prestigious AAA’s Award of Excellence. To date she has painted a wealth of subjects in watercolor, mixed media, and oil on canvas. She has depicted marine life, scenic coastlines, picturesque grazing livestock, and hula.

“Sachi paints with multiple colors on one brush stroke,” details Vera Kirkpatrick, owner of Genesis Galleries Hawaii at Queens’ MarketPlace and Aesthetic Hawaii by Genesis Galleries at Kings’ Shops Waikoloa—both locations offer her art. “Sachi’s impressionistic style lends itself to the underwater scapes with Hawaiian green sea turtles and the classical koi and lily pond images synonymous with Hawaiian imagery.” Regarding technique, Vera explains Sachi paints on wide stretcher bars and traditional canvases in an Old-World style; her medium is “like that of the old masters, only with oil paint.”

Collectors of Sachi’s art include Oprah Winfrey, Al and Tipper Gore, and Yoko Ono, plus corporations including MCA Records and The Ritz Carlton Hotels.

Taking her talents to help causes she believes in, Sachi has donated numerous prints of her paintings to marine life and conservation organizations. One image, Amazing Grace, is a vision she had of her son Aaron asleep atop a sea turtle. She had the image printed on cotton instead of paper to save trees and donated 1,000 copies to the American Ocean Campaign. After swimming with dolphins, Sachi was inspired to paint the playful cetaceans and donated prints to Dolphin Quest.

“Sachi has a passionate and profound knowledge of all areas of our natural world and its inhabitants,” says Lisa Mitchell of Recyclaholics, a Wisconsin compostable packaging company Sachi has sourced for two decades. “She has earth wisdom and is committed to sustainability.”

Still creating art, Sachi says her main subjects are koi and turtles as she is a water fanatic. She loves the bright colors of koi and has fond memories of ocean encounters with turtles, sharing, “I feel like they love me.”

Choosing a Path for Self-Healing

Three years ago, Sachi was diagnosed with a cancerous pancreas, destroyed adrenals, a sick fatty liver, and damaged thyroid glands and gall bladder. Summing up her condition, Sachi says, “I basically had a destroyed endocrine system.”

Through research, which included talking to MIT staff, Sachi says she “used her body as a lab rat” to heal. At the time she was living in South Kona “where I was surrounded by an environment drenched in the herbicide glyphosate. I couldn’t get grass to grow and the chemical was leaching into our well water.”

Thinking the chemicals were destroying her endocrine system, Sachi moved to a new location and changed her diet. “I relied on Vitamin K2, which is found in sauerkraut, as I found it reverses the effect of glyphosate on the body.”

“I was 85 pounds of sagging flesh on bone and told I had incurable sarcopenia but now I have regained my weight,” declares Sachi. “I have muscle, brain, and body strength from methods I found that worked…aside from my faults and handicaps.”

Sachi’s healing methods included cold shower therapy (thermogenesis), yoga stretching and breathing, plus a diet devoid of all sugars, grains, beans, junk food, and seed oils with the addition of fat and special nutrients

Employing the help of the mind to heal, Sachi did visualizations to open doors to new goals. She learned to understand the brain and the parasympathetic nervous system to combat negative self-talk. Sachi feels negative thoughts keep the body from functioning properly.

What’s next for Sachi? She says her end goal is finding a perfect oasis for herself, her pets, and the beautiful trees she has planted “that have been waiting for years for a permanent place in the earth to grow, to be loved, and appreciated by future generations.” ❖

---

All images courtesy Sachi

For more information
ksachi@aol.com
keolamagazine.com/people/evelyn-musacchia/