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Amy Herbig, President

Blonde Ambition

Search for the Lost Baranov Diamonds

Presented by Two Wall Gallery and Valise

Curators’ Note: The following history was compiled after years of painstaking research by noted treasure hunter Cecil Benthos. Several of the clues are being exhibited during the month of July at both Two Wall Gallery and Valise, and others will be revealed during the month at various locales, clues to which will appear as you follow the trail. One lucky treasure hunter will hopefully find the legendary Lost Baranov Diamonds at the end of that trail. If anyone does find it, that person should contact either Two Wall or Valise as soon as possible! The finder will get to keep the treasure, but only if you contact one of the galleries for debriefing.

The Baranov Diamonds: History and Clues

By Cecil Benthos, PhD
Treasure Hunter and International Entrepreneur
Offices in Vienna, Krakow, and Bean Blossom, Indiana

“Read these words carefully! Each word means something!!”

Years ago, while my father was surviving the Battle of Stalingrad in an overlooked vodka cellar, he wrote several letters home that mentioned in passing some hidden jewels that he had heard about around that time, perhaps even as he was in the cellar. His letters were not clear, but as a child, I was interested in this. It was only later that I realized the importance of his words, and begin to piece together the history of the Legendary Lost Baranov Diamonds.

From what I could learn through extensive research in the Pacific Northwest and from my business associates in Russia, who almost refused being paid for their help, the Baranov Diamonds (my name for them) are a collection of brightly colored and rare heart-cut stones that came from a diamond mine in the Urals. They were originally a gift that Napoleon acquired for Josephine (“Stolen!” my Russian friends say), but were lost in the retreat of the French in the winter of 1812-13. Apparently, they were last seen then by a Russian woman who was paid to wash Napoleon’s uniform, and she set them on his dressing table. They disappeared as if by magic that very day, leading some people to think they were indeed magic stones. Both magic and terrifying, is my conclusion, for mere mention of these stones has the power to turn some people into violent skeptics and has led to at least one traffic accident in southern Poland between a car and a manure spreader.

Not long after their disappearance, a similar collection of heart-cut stones was mentioned in a letter from Alexandr Baranov, the first governor of Russian Alaska and manager of the Russian-American Fur Company, to his sister Irena. His translated letter contains the statement “And dear sister, amazing stones are finally out [or displaced] painfully cut like little hearts my own like crystal [part unreadable] and colors remarked [or remarkable].” So it is clear to me and beyond all doubt that Baranov acquired the diamonds and took them to Alaska.

Russian relations with natives along the coast during that time were strained at best, but following the Battle of Sitka, the Russians found themselves ill at ease in a country filled with violent and skeptical natives. Money and other things of value were sometimes kept hidden in case of attack. It is my belief based upon the clues I have found that Baranov buried the diamonds on Vashon 1815 or 1816 while returning from a trip into northern California. His diary from that time mentions an encounter with a native party that was prepared for war near what is now called Portage. The natives assaulted the Russians with beach rocks and sunk a small boat. Oddly, Baranov wrote in his diary that he thought his men were being mistaken for someone else, based upon insults of a personal nature yelled by the natives, but this mystery (or magic!) was never explained.

There is a least one artifact from that encounter, which you will see displayed in town here. After the battle, Baranov was fearful of a second attack and so he buried the stones for safekeeping. Baranov never returned to recover them. He died in 1819.

Baranov’s diary talks about burying the stones. Although the word “diamonds” is not used, he mentions hiding something of great value to be gathered when things settled down. He writes that the item was wrapped in a cloth, hidden within a tin coffee pot, and sealed with wax and mica (as was common for the time). Mica was also scattered near the hiding place, perhaps because it would remind Baranov of the sparkling diamonds, or perhaps only because they were careless with the precious mica (or ising glass). It is no coincidence to me that the words “ising” and “island” both start with “is.”

The clues I have amassed include several rock carvings that you will see displayed, some other artifacts, and most importantly a map. This map I found in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, which cost me a fortune in pre-inflationary rubles to borrow (when money really meant something!), and includes some of my notes, as well as other notes I presume are Baranov’s. The map in St. Petersburg had been cut into 12 pieces to insure that no one had all of it at once, but two pieces were missing. Years later, I found the last two pieces in an Orthodox Monastery in Alaska, near Baranov’s headquarters, stuffed inside a bible, one next to a passage in Exodus and the other in Revelations.

For reasons of security, I cannot finish the search I started years ago. So I ask for your help. My clues are arranged like knots on a string. Start at the end I give you and follow it to the finish. Each clue may be the one you need most….or perhaps some of the clues are pickled red herrings. All I ask is that you keep following the string…and if you find the treasure, you let the kind people at either Two Wall or Valise know about your discovery. You may keep the treasure if I can meet you to see it and hear how you found it. I just want vindication for my poor departed Father, who suffered so cruelly in that cold cellar in 1942, and was accused of such terrible things by the SS. Barely kept alive by the dregs in the vodka barrels, his memory lives on in this search. Help me show that his passion was not misplaced, and help me put his spirits to rest.

The Clues:

Look for these clues to begin with; others will be apparent as you search. Remember there are 12 pieces of the map to be discovered:

1) Beginning July 3, and for the rest of the month, the first clues will be visible at Two Wall Gallery, Valise, and Giraffe, with leads to other clues offered at that time. Be prepared to look for other places where clues might be visible. At Two Wall and Valise, two rock carvings and other clues will be on exhibit on July 3. At Giraffe, find Priscilla and tell her you want to “Pay for the Statue.”

2) Beginning Friday, July 10, another important clue will be revealed at Gusto Girls. Ask the bartender for a “Savoy Hotel Special No. 2 (nudge nudge, wink wink).”

Clues to the rest of the 12 pieces will become available as you go. We recommend you take some paper with you to trace or draw the map fragments so that you can play with them at home. They are all the same size, and they all fit together to comprise the original map. We’re pretty sure about that. Well, reasonably sure.

You may ask us if you need help. We may offer hints….or we may not, depending upon whether or not you are wearing brightly colored socks that day. One of us loves the color orange. We know nothing, but some of us can be bribed.

IF YOU FIND IT, LET US KNOW. Trust us, you’ll be famous, but only if you tell us how you found it.

Thank you, Amy.

Who is the comforting figure behind the child?

Hidden Treasure on Vashon Island

By Greg Wessel (Two Wall Gallery)

In addition to July’s exhibits, including works by Heather Joy and Matthew Olds, the Two Wall Gallery and Valise will display artifacts that are clues to a purportedly “fantastic hidden collection of gems.” Presented by mysterious fictional artist and entrepreneur Cecil Benthos, these clues and other signs, that will be revealed from July 3rd through August 6th, will lead one lucky and dogged Vashonite to the legendary “Lost Baranov Diamonds.”

The galleries could not verify all of the amazing claims made by the artist, but we researched it far enough to confirm that there is absolutely something valuable hidden somewhere on Vashon Island. It is worth finding and should be discoverable through correct interpretation of the clues. That much is fact.

According to his Facebook bio, the veracity of which could not be verified, Benthos rose to prominence among treasure hunters after his success in finding the Lost Scotchman Mine in the Sonoran Desert. Benthos has been looking for the Baranov treasure for “nearly 30 years,” after learning of its history from his father.

Clues to the treasure include an ancient map.

First Friday - June

Please join us for the opening reception of "Foresight."

[not to be confused with the show, Foreskin, showing at the Valium Gallery in Montreal]

Foresight will feature the incomparable works of Seattle artists Amy Huddleston and Jane Emens.


First Friday, June 5, 6-9pm

Valise Gallery

17633 Vashon Hwy SW

One door south of Gusto Girls

Coming in June

December, July, February

by Heather Joy

Ink prints framed in birth control pill boxes.

Road Show

by Victor B. Monchego, Jr.

Collage: Valise with maps, miscellaneous travel detritus, clean underwear, tiny whiskey bottle, Paxil tablets, hotel card keys, AIG visitor passes, business card towers, and family polaroid.

Women in their Underwear

What comes to mind are three women on frank display. These are not Maxim playthings, not cover girls. Think of your aunt. The eccentric one with the high IQ.

What some people may fail to appreciate, without a deeper examination, is what remarkable lives these grand women had.

The women are Bella Abzug (orange), Clara Fraser (blue) and the still vivacious, Greta Gaard (green), as depicted by Jiji Saunders in Valise Gallery’s April installation titled, “Carry On.”
What hangs on the wall is not lingerie. In fact, they are the aged linings of womanly valises. The faded, silky fabrics have been dissected carefully from three suitcases pre-dating the Nixon administration.

Years before 9/11, the items in a woman’s suitcase were especially intimate. What’s inside? Contraceptive foam? A new pants suit? That strange scissor-handled contraption used to shape eyelashes? But the metaphor runs much deeper.

What is inside a grown woman’s life? Where has she been and what has she endured on her journey?

The faded nylon fabrics are lovely. Look closely; there are stains from all the voyages. One subtle spot hints of lipstick? menstruation? plum preserves? Who knows.

The subjects of Saunders work are activists. Clara Fraser and Bella Abzug had rich lives. Born three years apart in the Roaring 20’s, both died in 1998. Greta Gaard carrys on as a writer and educator.

Clara Fraser was a feminist and socialist political organizer, who co-founded and led the Freedom Socialist Party and Radical Women. In being fired in 1975 for speaking out against sex-and-ideology discrimination at Seattle City Light, then being rehired seven years later, Clara Goodman Fraser improved life for many of the Seattle's working women, poor people and minorities.

Her headline-grabbing actions of the mid-1970s and early 1980s made Clara Fraser a familiar name. From then on her work in Seattle's Radical Women and Freedom Socialist Party, both of which she helped found, became high-profile.

So did Ms. Fraser herself, a dramatic, husky-voiced former laborer who loved chocolates, cigarettes and mystery novels. But for more than a quarter-century before, she had agitated for women, people of color, union workers, gays and prisoners. Divorced herself, she helped write the state's first divorce-reform bill and organized Washington's first abortion-rights rally. She also campaigned for university-funded child care at the University of Washington and worked to get women into electrical and engineering careers.

Bella Savitsky Abzug was an American lawyer, Congresswoman, social activist and a leader of the Women's Movement. In 1971 Abzug joined other leading feminists such as Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan to found the National Women's Political Caucus. She famously declared "This woman’s place is in the House—the House of Representatives" in her successful 1970 campaign to join that body. She was later appointed to chair the National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year and plan the 1977 National Women's Conference and led Jimmy Carter's commission on women.

Greta Claire Gaard (born 1960, Hollywood, CA) is an ecofeminist writer, scholar, activist, and documentary filmmaker. Gaard's academic work in the realms of ecocriticism and ecocomposition is widely cited by scholars in the disciplines of composition and literary criticism. Her theoretical work extending ecofeminist thought into queer theory, vegetarianism, and animal liberation has been influential within women's studies. A cofounder of the Minnesota Green Party, Gaard documented the transition of the U.S. Green movement into the Green Party of the United States in her book, Ecological Politics. She is currently a professor of English at University of Wisconsin-River Falls and a community faculty member in Women's Studies at Metropolitan State University, Twin Cities.

I see three dames, posing proudly in their underwear.

The Challenges of an Installation

What makes good art? Or the converse, what makes art bad?

I never had an art class and I don’t consider myself an artist, so as Kurt Vonnegut once said to me (true story), “If I don’t like what you’ve written, it is perfectly fine to tell me to go to hell.” The same goes here. I am not trying to be high-minded.

Five qualities to consider:

Craft – does the artist have control over the medium?

Unity – does the work hang together with a coherent meaning, rather than having divergent styles, distractions, and inconsistent meanings?

Composition – does it lay out well? Is it interesting in its organization and spacing?

Color and Shade – does the work take advantage of color elements, or is it muddled?

Theme – as a hack writer, I get themes. Does the art tell a story? What might the lessons be?

April Installation - Carry On!

Valise Gallery
17633 Vashon Hwy SW
One door south of Gusto Girls
www.valisegallery.org
Visit our website for more about Carry On

Please join us for the opening reception of
“Carry On”
An installation by Elizabeth Conner in collaboration with Valise members

First Friday, April 3, 6-9pm


Inspired by the artist collective's name Valise, an installation titled "Carry On" will welcome visitors to a space that might remind you of storage for lost luggage... or playing in your grandmother's attic... the aftermath of a gentle earthquake...or a collection of secrets waiting to be claimed.

What comes to mind when you hear the words "carry on"?

We invite you to bring written thoughts, photographs, or small objects (3" x 4" maximum) to Valise during the April Gallery Cruise. We will add your contributions to the installation, which will grow and change during the month of April.

Show runs through April.

(photo by Irene Stroganova)

Another Drawing Session

Monday Evening Life Drawing

Come Draw the Peacock Lady!




The Valise Artist Collective will host a second free drawing session Monday, March 30 from 6:00 to 9:00 pm at the Valise Gallery. Come draw the Peacock Lady in all her finery. The session is open to all ages. Please bring your own drawing materials and a chair or cushion.

Playing God with Chickens (or Playing Chicken with Gods)

by Victor Bravo Monchego, Jr.

Animals have been my best teachers when it comes to life’s big lessons. Unlike too many humans, animals teach by the creed: Show, Don’t Tell. Animals never pontificate.

There was the Canadian goose that I shot, not so deftly, on the bank of the Platte River. That goose taught me about the responsibility of power.

My dogs, over the years, have taught me about loyalty and unconditional love, even when I’ve behaved badly if not inexcusably. It is possible to forgive those who have trespassed and harmed you the most.

I’ve outlived many generations of pets. This metering has tried to instruct me about impermanence, the reckoning of our lives, and the hazards of procrastinating away important dreams and goals.

My most recent coach is a Sicilian named Butter Cup. She is a chicken. Last night, I found Butter Cup on the bottom of the coop, badly wounded. She was twisting and quivering in the guano beneath her sisters’ perch. One eye was working, one was not. Her neck was badly wracked, mortally by my assessment. Butter Cup dropped me off at a moral crossroads:

To the north was the road to mercy; kill Butter Cup and end her suffering. An honest, practical man would have Butter Cup for tomorrow’s dinner, too.

To the south led the road of compassion. Care for the bird and attempt to mend her. Should the matter of her being born Gallus gallus instead of Homo sapiens make a difference in a Zen cosmic scheme?

Either direction, south or north, were morally equivalent in my mind. They were both acceptable decisions.

To the west, there was no trail. It was bushwackery. The choice was to do nothing, feel nothing. Return to the house, pop a Schlitz and watch The Real Housewives of Orange County. In other words, let Butter Cup die in the dung.

I did feel something. I was empathetic but a type of fear was meddling with me. I lacked the conviction for a merciful execution or for a compassionate doctoring, because let’s face it; doctoring is messy. Doctoring often requires impounding the injured while tending the wound.

As Master Yoda forewarned, fear turns to anger. I was becoming angry with myself because I knew I lacked conviction. I was judging myself because I couldn’t end the bird’s misery, and too inept to nurse it.

Fortunately, I knew a back road. I chose the path to the east, the coward’s way: I called in my virtuous spouse who possesses a braver constitution. She has the ability to act decently, in most situations, without pondering. She lives in a world of black and white, where mine tends to be all shades of gray, not to mention yellow.

So now we have a gimpy chicken recovering in our shower stall. According to the vet, Butter Cup does not have a broken neck. She has neurological damage which may or may not be permanent. The vet said, it looks like the results of a hawk attack. We should know in the next few days, if she improves.

For now, we are hydrating Butter Cup’s crop and feeding her by force. She is crippled. Feeding requires sliding a tube down her gullet several times a day. This is the same way geese are fattened for pate. Like most patients, Butter Cup is adjusting to the unpleasant procedure.

So the easterly coward’s path eventually turned southward. Thank the gods I don’t walk alone.

Please Keep Your Baggage with You at All Times

Drawing Session

Sunday, March 29

Valise Gallery, a collective of Island artists, is hosting a drawing session Sunday March 29th, 12:00 to 3:00 PM at the Valise Gallery, 17622 Vashon Hwy.

The session is open to all ages and will combine some life drawing and still life study. Participants are requested to supply their own drawing materials and bring a chair or cushion as well, however, drawing materials will be provided to those just beginning.

Valise will be hosting this session monthly. For more information contact Brian @ 227-0061.