If loving Ray Troll is wrong, I don’t want to be right. The Ketchikan-based artist is best known (up here, anyway) for his fish T-shirts, prints, pins and such. But he’s branched out to sharks, fossils, dinosaurs and evolution, all of it imbued with unmistakeable graphics and some truly atrocious puns.
Three of those mini-masterpieces, in the form of fridge magnets, make up this week’s giveaway.
These aren’t the flimsy kind given away by your local bank or dentist’s office, either. Rigid plastic, measuring 2½ by 3 inches, and emblazoned with pun-derful mottoes:
“Salmon: The Fish That Dies For Love” (see above — fish flinging themselves up a river strewn with hearts)
“Blues in the Key of Sea” (featuring a bass that plays the bass)
“Ain’t No Nookie Like Chinookie” (a man, a woman, a couple of fish — cue that old Alaska love ballad, “Salmon-chanted Evening”)
My six degrees of separation with Mr. Troll comes from my days at the Anchorage Daily News. He designed an enamel pin for the reporters, a takeoff on the motorcycle motto of “Ride hard, die free” (often displayed with a skull).
Troll’s take on it: A skeleton hunched over a computer and the phrase, “Write hard, die free.”
Can’t help lovin’ that man. But not in a chinookie kind of way, of course. My admiration is purely for his art, and his ability to turn almost any fish into a joke. Gotta appreciate a man who can paint a picture of a guy hauling in a barn-door halibut and write under it, “I like big ‘buts.”
To enter:
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If you do any (or all!) of these things, please leave separate, additional comments to get credit for each entry.
The deadline is 7 p.m. PDT Tuesday, July 30. If I don’t hear back from the winners by 7 p.m. PDT Wednesday, July 31, I’ll pull another name.
The prize won’t be mailed until the following week, however. I leave Wednesday for the SaveUp13 conference. Maybe I’ll bring back oddments to give away.
Follow you on FB,
Beautiful graphics. I’d like to win, pick me.
Please enter me in the drawing. It really appeals to my sense of humor
As a transplanted Alaskan now living in California, I enjoy all kinds of Alaskana art, bad puns and truly stupid stuff. I would love to have one of these magnets!
As we say in Alaska, “Spawn ’til you die!”
Thanks!
“Swim a thousand miles/Do it once and DIE…”
If I can’t get to Alaska any time soon, I’ll settle for those magnets, Donna! ;o)
I don’t even care about the magnet prize (although I’d love to win it) so much as a big THANK YOU for introducing me to Ray Troll!! Sweetheart and I have been giggling and figuring out how to afford an original ever since I opened your post today.
You’re so welcome. He has a lot of items from which to choose…It’s a tough choice.
There’s always room on the fridge for some more whimsical magnets!
Years ago I bought my avid-fisherman father a t-shirt with Ray’s “Bass Ackwards” print on it (http://www.trollart.com/trollart_toplinks/galleries/80s90s3/pages/002.htm ). I’d love to give Dad another piece of Troll Art!
Since I have 5 grandkids there is ALWAYS a TON of stuff on my fridge. I know both my DDs would also LOVE to share in these to display their kids stuff.
These sound great! Thank you Donna!
Who wouldn’t love more magnets for their fridge! Thanks for the opportunity!
Great. Now I can’t get “What I Did For Love” outta my head. “Fish today goodbye, and point me towards some mayo…”
Sorry – best I could do on a Monday morning.
Ha! I like it!
LOVE them !!! Where can I get them if I don’t win ??
Follow the “Ray Troll” hyperlink in the article. Thanks for supporting the local economy!
I love his art! Count me in, please!
These would make a FANTASTIC addition to my fridge magnet collection! Thanks for another great giveaway, and for turning me on to Ray Troll. I will dolphinately check out his website. 😉
Glad to see you have a porpoise in life. 😉
Love the artwork.
facebook and twitter
I would love to win these.
I would like to respond as an e-mail list subscriber as well; I really would like to win these.
There is no type of humor as reviled and underappreciated as the pun. I’m proud to say I’ve always been a fan and am thrilled to find a new source of wicked funnies!
follow on your facebook page as well. Still would really like to win these.
I wanna win the “I like big buts” magnet! Hah! What a hoot!
What did the magnet say to the fridge? I find you very attractive.