Troll in our midst: Solvang gets a permanent installation from Danish artist Thomas Dambo

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Lulu Hyggelig snuck out of her tower every night to eat leftover pastries from a nearby bakery, but after a hundred years of feasting, she grew too big to leave her tower. Now she sits trapped, day after day, waiting for sweets from the Solvang streets. 

That’s a brief synopsis of the story behind Danish artist Thomas Dambo’s first permanent troll in California, which debuted this past February at the California Nature Art Museum (CalNAM) in Solvang. According to Executive Director Stacey Otte-Demangate, the Dambo troll commission is one of the museum’s “latest biggest accomplishments,” as it has brought more attention to the museum and even the historic city of Solvang. 

“My volunteers and staff are telling me all the time like, ‘Oh, we had a visitor that came from Seattle,’” she said. “This one couple I was talking to drove down specifically from Sacramento because they couldn’t believe that they could, in person, easily see a Thomas Dambo troll.”

This year also marks the 25th anniversary of the museum, which Santa Barbara artist Patti Jacquemain founded as the Wildling Art Museum dedicated to celbrating nature through art and education. Jacquemain recalled a recent conversation with her husband, Dave Gledhill, where she asked him, “Can you believe it’s been 25 years since we started this museum?”

She noted that what she and Gledhill find most exciting about the museum and its accomplishments is that people have always appreciated its mission. She expressed pride in the success of the museum, adding that she and her team built it from “nothing.”

“I mean nothing,” she emphasized. “I took it to a few friends and we formed the first board, but we had no idea how it was going to work out or how we were going to raise money. We didn’t have any money given to us, so all of a sudden, we really had to earn it.” 

Jacquemain said that she looks forward to continuing to watch the museum evolve over the next several years. 

“What I’m hoping is we continue to have some creative people that will think about having new kinds of exhibitions but still keeping with the theme of the wildlife and the wild places,” Jacquemain said. 

While the Dambo troll deviates somewhat from the museum’s typical nature-focused installations, Otte-Demangate explained that Dambo’s emphasis on sustainability aligns with CalNAM’s goal of inspiring people to take care of the natural world. 

“We are a certified green business, so not only do our exhibitions talk about the love of nature and needing to be good stewards of the land and of natural areas, but we try and walk our talk,” she said. 

Dambo builds all of his trolls using “trash” or recycled materials, which for Lulu meant using wooden pallets and wine barrels donated from local wineries. Otte-Demangate described the process of building the troll as a “community effort,” noting that Dambo and his team used the help of about 50 volunteers to build Lulu in just two weeks. 

“It’s really an incredible process,” she said. “It’s all sustainable. It’s all reused materials, which is just a huge part of his ethos because he cares so much about the environment and worries so much about all the trash that humans tend to put out there in the world.”

According to Otte-Demangate, Solvang stood out to Dambo as a location for his first permanent troll in California because of its emphasis on Danish culture. She said that he first expressed interest in working with CalNAM in 2023 after visiting the city. 

“Our tower, which is full of windows and right on a high-visibility corner, just seemed like a really great opportunity to him and for us,” she said.

Across the world, Dambo has built more than 100 trolls, and Otte-Demangate said that all of those trolls, except for the one in Solvang, sit outdoors in nature. 

The artist’s website features a “trollmap,” which shows the location of 154 trolls around the globe. Users of the interactive map can create a profile, allowing them to mark trolls as “found” and continue searching for more Dambo creations.

“So, it’s not just that they’re trashy trolls, so to speak, but it’s also about encouraging people to go on a hike, go out there in nature, and then be surprised by this sort of magical, mythical, goofy thing,” Otte-Demangate said.

Staff Writer Emma Montalbano marked Lulu Hyggelig as found. Send tips to emontalbano@newtimesslo.com.

This article appears in May 8-18, 2025.