Artist, naturalist Ray Troll to give talk April 30 at KU

LAWRENCE — Artist and naturalist Ray Troll will present “Fostering Fossil Fascination: Living the Paleo Nerd Life” at 3 p.m. April 30 in the Beren Center Auditorium, G192 Slawson Hall.

The 2011 Guggenheim Fellow will discuss his career as a visual artist and science communicator and share information about the image displayed in Ritchie Hall that he donated to the University of Kansas Department of Geology. The presentation is open to the public or may be viewed on Zoom by registering in advance.

Troll moved to the Pacific Northwest from Kansas in the late 1970s and eventually on to Alaska in the ‘80s with multiple art degrees and a love of natural history. Settling into Ketchikan, he began producing offbeat fish-inspired T-shirts popular with anglers, commercial fishermen and scientists around the world.

Troll will share the story of how paleontology came to be an important focal point for his unconventional body of work during the KU event. His art has toured in major exhibitions at museums across the United States and overseas. He has co-written and illustrated a dozen books, including two with Smithsonian paleontologist Kirk Johnson: “Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway” and “Cruisin’ the Fossil Coastline.” Clover Press recently published a comprehensive collection of his art called “Spawn Till You Die: the Fin Art of Ray Troll.” 

Troll hosts a podcast with David Strassman called “Paleo Nerds, ” with new prehistoric-themed episodes debuting every month. He has also released five albums with his band, the Ratfish Wranglers. He has a species of ratfish named for him, Hydrolagus trolli, and genus of extinct herring called Trollichthys. When not in Alaska, he and his wife, Michelle, have a gallery in Lindsborg called the Prairie Sea. Learn more about Troll at his website.