When Thomas Dambo stumbled upon some large yellow buckets in a trash heap, he was ecstatic. Perfect for the large bunny he was making, he said.
“My ultimate goal is to have trolls surprising people in every state,” said Thomas Dambo, who has made it his life work to construct mammoth trolls out of trash.
So far, the enterprising artist has created 139 giant trash trolls in 19 states across the U.S., from Washington to Maine, as well as in 20 countries.
In Detroit Lakes, there’s a troll named Alexa, while a troll called ‘Ronny Funny Face’ pokes his tongue out at passersby.
While it could be quite a shock to run into one of these — one troll appropriately named ‘Long Leif’, towers 42 feet above the grass –they are all friendly.
Most of Dambo’s trolls are permanent fixtures, but some travel in temporary exhibits, such as the “Save the Humans” trolls that were on display at the Philadelphia Zoo earlier this year with a message about caring for the environment.
Now, Dambo has a crew of 26 that builds heads for the trolls in the workshop and ships them to be assembled with the rest of the sculptures on-site.
“We’re working on 12 [trolls] in the studio right now, and it takes about 750 hours to complete each one from beginning to end,” he said.
“My trolls are the voices of nature and the animals,” Dambo said. “In Detroit Lakes, the story is about a golden rabbit that comes into the city and casts a spell on humans, so they think they have to work all the time to get twice as much money to be twice as happy.”
Dambo says he ‘takes pride’ in knowing that his trolls are bringing smiles while also making use of throwaway materials from the local landfill.
Wouldn’t you love to stumble upon his creations?