One does not need to have a degree in Biology to understand that dragons and unicorns are made up creatures. But on the other hand Nature can be surprisingly inventive. There is a magical twilight zone from what is really out there into what reason could open up to.

Intelligence is often measured in terms of the ability to adapt to a new situation. But doesn't this apply to the entire evolution? In this perspective every organism must have some kind of intelligence to carry on. Within a species of course there are lots of butt-heads, just like in humans. But then there also are the cleverer, and they keep the species going. Who would imagine that a bug'd be smarter than a human!

1 Blowbug
long 11 cm
Lignum Vitae
Like this little fellow. When he wants to cross water he jumps on to a leaf drifting by, lifts one side of it and sails to the other shore.

2 River reptile
long 17 cm
Lignum Vitae
But then there was this predator who watched a nice meal sail by and jumped upon a larger leaf, catching the wind with his dorsal fin and navigating with his tail.

3 Disc snail
long 12 cm
Holly Oak
This is the only known organism that uses the wheel principle for transportation. The snail can withdraw its head in the shell and close up like a disc. Once rolling it can go faster or slow down by rhythmic contractions of the shell.

4 Glider seed
long 33 cm
Lignum Vitae
Plants can be clever too. Observe the various ways in which they disperse their seeds. This one goes into free fall, picks up air resistance by it's speed, tilts unto a horizontal position, even lifts a bit and then glides way away.

5 Dawn bug
long 18 cm
Purpleheart
The ancient Egyptians associated this scarab with the creation of the new day. It's also the only insect capable of interstellar travel.

6 Giga Insect
long 300 cm, high 120 cm
Elm wood
My first large project, took me a year. Actually it features parts of different insects. It stood in the town hall of Slochteren, in the north of Holland, for many years.

7 Double take
long 48 cm
Surinam Greenheart
An abstract frog, or is it the front view of a horse's head?

8 Aqua-liner
long 66 cm
Siricote
Sometimes on a puddle you see a V-shape swiftly moving across the surface. And since no-one could ever explain it to me... Underneath my own surface I was searching for direction, hence my intrigue with arrowed profiles.

9 Fly
long 5.5 cm
Cow horn
A tiny fly, cut from the tip of a cow horn. Observe the notch that separates the hind wings. It's the first of a recurring feature that eventually resulted into a whale's fluke.

10 Trilobite
long 11.5 cm
Species unidentified
This wood was given to me by 'Centrum Hout', the National Dutch Information Centre on Wood. It had washed up on a North Sea beach and could not be determined. It's very heavy and sinks in water. In the very core, which is on top of the head, it's glasslike with a brightly burning red.

11 Dorsal armour
long 48 cm
Ironheart with sapwood.
This sculpture of three overlapping arrows upon its sapwood harbors a fleeting abstraction of something dolphin.

12 Kè-Gaghell
long 200cm, across 130 cm, weight 2.5 tons
Ironwood
The heavy armour shields a monster that lived on the edge of ice-floes. The wood, Ironwood, is extremely hard en cross-grained and therefor difficult to work. It took three years. See Dolphin Address 8 2010 and the video that is linked to it.

The numbers 4, 7, 8, 10 and 11 are still with me. Prices upon request.