He took one design he particularly liked – called “Let’s Spawn” – and printed up a few hundred shirts for a seafood festival in town that summer.

He was passionate about fish culture, pop culture, and science and started to develop his surreal, yet scientifically accurate artistic style.ġ984 was a turning point for Ray. Heck, he could run downstairs from his studio above the cannery and grab a subject any time he wanted. Instead of returning to Kansas in the fall Ray stayed in Ketchikan and worked the slime line at a local cannery and taught part-time at the University of Alaska Southeast campus.Īfter selling fish and processing them day-after-day, it was only natural that the trained printmaker and artist would try his hand at drawing them. So when his big sister Kate asked him to come up to Ketchikan and help her and her husband manage a little seafood shop on the docks called Hallelujah Halibut, Ray took the opportunity to have an adventure and make some cash for the summer.Like many dreamers before him, Alaska proved to be Ray’s personal Hotel California – and he found it hard to leave. His dream was to be a college professor, but as a fresh MFA graduate it wasn’t easy to find a college that would take him seriously enough to consider giving him a full-time job and tenure. He just got out of graduate school and was teaching at his alma mater in Kansas. Ray was in something of a transition period in the summer of 1983. He has spoken to the hearts and minds of those who love the ocean and have sold millions of items in the process. His most well-known designs like “Return of the Sockeye” and “Spawn Till You Die” have graced the chests of movie stars and rockstars, not to mention thousands of Alaskans.Īs I talked to Ray on The Alaska Show Podcast I was curious about his rocket-fueled journey from a fishmonger in Ketchikan, Alaska to the artist behind countercultural touchstones that have lasted from the 80s through present-day.

You are probably familiar with Ray Troll’s shirts.

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