Opening Night Talk
Fish Worship Is Not Wrong, or How I Became A Scientific Surrealist Alaskan artist Ray Troll will share the twists and turns of his decidedly fishy career.

Biography
Ray moved to the Northwest in the late 1970s and eventually on to Alaska in the early '80s, with a couple of art degrees in his back pocket and a life-long interest in natural history. He settled in the rain-swept coastal city of Ketchikan and began producing offbeat fish-filled T-shirts that soon gained him an audience with cannery workers, anglers, commercial fishers, and scientists. His collaborations with the scientific community eventually led to exhibitions at major museums across the United States. He has co-authored and illustrated seven books, including an overview of his work called "Rapture of the Deep: The Art of Ray Troll," with an essay by David James Duncan and an introduction by his longtime "partner in slime," Brad Matsen. Ray also wrote and illustrated a unique alphabetical children’s book of living and prehistoric sharks called “Sharkabet.” Ray served as the art director for the Miami Museum of Science’s major traveling exhibit “Amazon Voyage: Vicious Fishes and Other Riches.” His latest book is “Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway,” with paleobotanist Dr. Kirk Johnson from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, released in late 2007. Ray also created original cover art for Alaska Sea Grant's recent book "Field Guide to Sharks, Skates, and Ratfish of Alaska." The same fishy art appears on a suitable-for-framing poster from Alaska Sea Grant.

Anchorage Daily News review of Ray's new CD. Tunes off this will be performed closing night at the Howling Dog:
http://www.adn.com/arts/story/324388.html

MP3s of Ray's music online at:
http://www.digstation.com/AlbumDetails.aspx?albumid=ALB000016467

Ray Troll Web site:
http://www.trollart.com/ with lots of new stuff.

Recent article in the Captiol CIty Weekly:
http://www.capitalcityweekly.com/stories/043008/ae_20080430030.shtml

"Cultural sightings" of people wearing Ray's original Spawn ’Til You Die" tee shirts:
http://www.trollart.com/news/spawntilyoudieov.html

Ray's band, The Squawking Fish, performing "Spawn Til You Die" on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90-Hb9DUpWw

Ray Troll's Alaska Sea Grant products, to be featured at the Book Festival:
http://seagrant.uaf.edu/bookstore/pubs/SG-ED-60.html

Kurt's Virtual Tourist info on the Howling Dog:
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/ffb30/b443f/5/#1826070

Opening night lecture theme art: "Fish Worship: Is It Wrong?"