About Us - Troll Art

The Ray Troll Web Store

Based in Ketchikan, Alaska
Sending Ray Troll artwork all over the world

The Ray Troll Web Store began as part of the Soho Coho, allowing people from all over the globe to purchase Ray’s t-shirts and artwork. After the closing of the Soho Coho at the end of 2023 the web store has remained. We are still based out of Ketchikan, Alaska, and orders are packed in our busy little room next to a salmon spawning creek.

A bit of history about the Soho Coho

Ray and Michelle Troll opened the Soho Coho art gallery in 1992. It was appropriately situated above a salmon spawning stream in K-town’s notorious former red light district. The Star Building was the biggest house-of-ill-repute on the street and featured a hardwood dance floor with a large inlaid star. The original star is still there today! Once upon a time it housed a rowdy dance hall run by the likes of “sporting women” known as Black Mary and Thelma Baker. It went on to showcase the artwork of Ketchikan artists Ray Troll, Evon Zerbetz, Chip Porter, Hall Anderson, Grace Freeman, and more. The Soho Coho was the place to find an eclectic mix of originals, prints, t-shirts, books, fossils, and unique gifts. Our motto is “Better living through difficult art!”

A letter from Michelle at the Soho Coho closing

Dearest Friends, Fans, and Patrons,

After thirty-one fabulous years living and loving art in the Soho Coho on Ketchikan’s legendary Creek Street, it is with sadness and joyful anticipation that I write now to tell you that we are moving on. We will bid farewell to our crazy, wonderful, fishy business on December 31st of this year. It’s been a great run and we are eternally grateful to all of you for supporting our quirky enterprise and for the creative energy you have inspired on our journey together. It has been a never-ending joy to curate our shop of wonders for people of all ages while working with so many talented artists, colleagues and businesses.

I am so grateful for all the years of having the best job I could ever have imagined. I have not only the artists and craftspeople we represented to thank, but also the skilled and dedicated staff who’ve worked with me in our little shop on a salmon stream in a small town of caring, appreciative people.

Celebrated Ketchikan artist Evon Zerbetz will be taking over the space we called the Soho Coho and has named her new business The Star Gallery. It will open sometime in the spring of 2024. Ray and I are thrilled to have the spirit of the Soho living on with Evon and her crew because we’ve shown her fine work since we first opened our doors in the summer of 1992. This seems like a very natural continuum.

Just so you know, we are moving on, and not retiring! Ray will keep making art and designing T shirts “till they pry the crayons from his gnarly old fingers.” We will continue operating our online webstore from our hometown of Ketchikan, Alaska.

We will miss the daily flow of happy people through the Soho Coho, and extend our heartfelt thanks to all of you who’ve visited us over the years. Your presence and appreciation for our efforts on behalf of Alaskan art and artists have enriched us beyond words.

With gratitude,

Michelle Troll