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With the exception of finger painting he made as a child, University of Alaska Southeast business management student Sterling Snyder said he has essentially no experience as a painter. But he was quick to pick up a brush when given the opportunity to help celebrated Ketchikan-based artist Ray Troll paint a new mural in the Egan Building at the Auke Bay campus this week.

On Tuesday afternoon, Snyder was one of several students painting images of salmon that Troll had drawn on the wall of a staircase. Troll used overhead projector to cast the salmon as if they were heading upstream to spawn.

"I haven't ever done the salmon kind of swimming up a cascading staircase like this before," Troll said. "I've been thinking about it for awhile, but I really didn't know what it would be like until I got here and started projecting fish on it."

The highlight of the mural will be a large oil painting of fish swimming through a forest that Troll will complete by himself, but he said he wanted to paint the entire room of the lower entryway of the newest classroom building by getting students involved in the process.

"Art can happen real quick when you get people involved in it and make it a more fun Tom Sawyer thing," he said.

The students and Troll spent Monday and Tuesday projecting and painting the five species of salmon native to Southeast Alaska - Chinook, sockeye, Coho, chum and pink. By the end of this week, Troll plans to have incorporated several humpback whales into the design, which is the university's mascot.

"It will be a nice little alcove of Trollness," he quipped.

Troll has been using overhead projectors to paint his images in open spaces since he first tried it in 1993 at the Burke Museum at the University of Washington in Seattle.

"What I usually like to do is just show up with a big, big stack of drawings and then start looking at particular spaces and you get the projector on and see what she looks like," he said.

Snyder said it is a "cool" experience to help out with such an impressive piece of art with such an "awesome" artist.

"I like the idea of projecting something and being able to do it, especially since I don't have a background in painting," he said. "Being able to go by something, kind of fill in the lines, really helps me and makes me feel like I can actually (paint)."

Teri Robus, a student enrolled in a history of world art course and an intermediate painting class, said it's neat for students to be involved with such a project.

"It's really cool to be doing something like this for the university, having a part in it, just doing my little tiny bit of Ray's vision," she said.

Robus said she enjoys Troll's art, which has become synonymous with Southeast Alaska and has adorned the halls of museums across the country. A marketing empire has spawned from his art, with T-shirts, posters, mouse pads and hats donning his trademark images such as "Spawn 'Til You Die" and "Ain't No Nookie Like Chinookie" that remain popular among locals and tourists alike.

Student Alicia Hughes-Skandijs said she was excited about the learning experience, even though it wouldn't result in any college credit.

"It's more like an opportunity," she said. "It's pretty cool that it's gonna be part of the campus, but to get to work with someone like him is really cool."

Snyder said he likes the idea of helping create a mural that many students will see in future years.

"I love the feeling that I'll make an impression at this school one way or another," he said and laughed.

• Contact reporter Eric Morrison at 523-2269 or e-mail eric.morrison@juneauempire.com.