Lulu Hyggelig (Thomas Dambo Troll) — California Nature Art Museum

The story

Solvang does a convincing imitation of a storybook Danish village, but tucked inside the California Nature Art Museum—occupying the former Wildling Museum space—is something far more unhinged. Meet Lulu Hyggelig, Danish artist Thomas Dambo’s first-ever indoor troll and California’s first permanent installation on his global Trollmap. She isn't cast in bronze or carved from granite; she is assembled entirely out of over 80 discarded wooden shipping pallets and oak staves salvaged from 30 local Santa Ynez Valley wineries, wedged tightly into the building's glass front tower.

Dambo gave her a backstory tailored specifically to Solvang's sugary reputation: Lulu supposedly swam across the ocean from Denmark, sneaked into town, and raided Mission Drive's bakeries until she grew too plump on butter and flour to squeeze back out through the windows. Because she is crammed into a climate-controlled indoor gallery rather than a damp forest clearing, you get an unnervingly close look at her construction—upcycled pallet nails, wine-stained stave barrel oak, and raw timber joints fitted together to build a towering, fat-cheeked giant glaring down at the street.