'Pia the Peacekeeper' – A giant troll now lurks in the woods on Bainbridge Island

Editor's note: This story was originally published in August.  We are republishing it as we look back at some of our most-read stories of the year.

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND – At a young age, Thomas Dambo found joy off the woods with friends, scavenging wood to build a hut or a fortress or a treehouse. He’d be completely absorbed in those moments of youthful bliss, the kind that see an afternoon disappear in a blink.

“I would be working like a freaking freight train, 14 hours a day, I would work on it,” he said. “And all my friends, they would be like, ‘No more, Thomas.’ And I would be like, ‘We just have to build this and go get that.’ I would really control it and make the game and let everybody come and be a part of it. Of course, that’s what I loved to do as a child, I’ve made it into a career.”

Dambo, a self-described “recycle art activist” from Copenhagen, Denmark, drifted back to his childhood for a few moments recently, standing a few steps away from his latest eye-popping art installation, which is tucked away in what is normally a quiet section of Sakai Park on Bainbridge Island. Over the last few days, though, the park has been filled with the sounds of saws buzzing and screwdrivers turning as volunteers and members of Dambo’s crew have worked to turn his storybook-esque vision into something real.

“Pia the Peacekeeper,” an 18-foot troll built from recycled wood now sits hunkered down in a stand of trees in the park, the latest in a long line of trolls that have sprouted from Dambo’s creative vision.

“I believe that our trash can be used for magnificent things, much better than growing our landfills,” he said. “Because if we keep growing them, then we’ll all live on a landfill in the near future.”

Pia comes in a series of six installations Dambo and his crew were constructing in the Pacific Northwest over the summer in an exhibition called "Northwest Trolls: Way of the Bird King," with one troll in Portland and the others in Issaquah, Ballard, West Seattle and on Bainbridge and Vashon islands. The pieces won’t last forever, but they'll be hosted at each site for at least three years and bring a little whimsy and joy while they're around.

Trolls are Dambo’s thing. He's built them across the globe, and Pia comes as his 121st. “I’m hoping to build 1,000 trolls before I exit out,” he said with a laugh.

Each piece has a unique name, story and construction.

“(Pia’s) like a playful troll, because she is playing with the humans, but she’s also a little bit scary, because she’s kind of strong, like a little girl can sometimes by accident break a leg or poke an eye out or light a fire to the hair of her doll,” Dambo said. “Don’t upset Pia, because you might lose a leg.”

Select pieces like the troll’s head were made in Dambo’s studio in Denmark and shipped over with parts for other trolls. A wooden frame works as an internal skeleton. Dozens and dozens of wooden pallets were broken down before pieces were screwed into place to form her exterior.

Workers scurried about the large piece, scrambling to finish off the last bits of the project here and there before an opening in August. Some eyeball the right wooden shapes to cut and secure them in place. Others work to create great stacks of birdhouses that will lead visitors to the hidden troll.

Tom Nordlie, of Poulsbo, contributed shells to be used in a large necklace and some apple tree trimmings that became a mop of curly hair atop Pia’s head. He put in several days working to help at the site. Nordlie had pushed for the troll to be added to Fish Park in Poulsbo, where he dedicated years of personal work, but was happy to see it built nearby on Bainbridge Island when that effort didn't work out.

“It’s spectacular,” he said, looking at the nearly finished troll on Friday morning. “I’m very proud of my contribution to it, and all the people, all the volunteers are just fantastic.”

Friends Daniel Estrada, of Queen Creek, Arizona, and Alma Bentz, of Kingston, also contributed work at the site on Friday, both eager to chip in on the larger-than-life effort. Estrada made a special trip north from Arizona to help.

“We were just excited when (Dambo) was coming to the United States,” Bentz said. “We were like, ‘Where? Oh my gosh, Washington? We’ve gotta know where and how we can help.’ We are just thrilled to be a part of everything here.”

The Scan Design Foundation and the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation both chipped in larger contributions for the project, and other funding and support came through private businesses and groups.

An army of volunteers chipped in labor alongside Dambo’s own work crew. Dawn Janow, an elected commissioner with the Bainbridge Island Metropolitan Park and Recreation District, which owns Sakai Park, and a local project manager with the group Friends of the Bainbridge Troll, said that more than 100 people had wanted to volunteer to work at the site and that a limit had to be placed on how many people could help.

The city of Poulsbo considered pursuing the troll project last year but eventually backed away from the effort, which led Bainbridge’s park district to pick up the venture.

“At first it’s like, 'A troll, what are you talking about?'” Janow said. And then momentum began to build toward bringing the piece to a park on the island.

“The amount of community positivity and excitement and joy around a project like this, you sort of call it 'stone soup,'” she said. “You start with an idea, people think you’re crazy and then slowly everybody wants to participate.”

For more information about the project, visit bainbridgetroll.org.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Giant troll art installation finds a home on Bainbridge Island