Bygones be bygones, but I think as candidates for the human race we missed a major opportunity 50 million years ago. We could have freed ourselves of gravity by joining the dolphins. I admit, we would have fettered ourselves to the surface, but just imagine the freedom from materialism we would have saved. May my whales and dolphins speak for themselves.

1 Minke whale
length 120 cm
Burma Padouk
This is the only whale I have ever actually seen. We had hired a boat on Clear Island, at the most south-western tip of Ireland, to go to the Fastnet light tower. We saw its dorsal fin on one side of the boat and it moved through right under us at a tremendous speed. I had a beautiful drawing of a minke whale hanging in my studio that I saw every day. Though we only saw the dorsal fin I could clearly picture the entire whale.

2 Grey Whale
height both ±100cm
Elm wood
My very first whale parts. The fluke is taken from a forked tree. I liked the suggestion that the rest of the whale is 'under water', as it also saves a lot of work.
Grey whales were also called 'Devil fish', because they put up a fight when harpooned and smashed up boats.

3 and 4 Fluke
height 230 cm
Beech wood
This sculpture stood in our front garden for three years. I had quite a different design in mind, but when I started working on it, it proved to have rotted inside on one end. So I set it up upon that end, and sculpted the fluke from the other end. In the background 'Lowlands Paradise', the house where I lived for 30 years.

5 Beluga Mother and Calf
max. length 450 cm
Oaken wood
These white whales are also called 'sea canaries' because they are highly vocal. They live at the edge of Arctic ice and have a loose, thick blubber skin. Contrary to most other whales its vertebrae are not fused, allowing it more freedom of neck movement and facial expression.

6 Orca
length 130 cm
Oaken wood
An oak tree in a forest will reach for sunlight and grow more or less in a straight line. This oak grew on a meadow and the trunk had strong curves. It took three months to see an orca in it and another four to get it out of the trunk. In the chest I dug out a big hole and filled that with 80 kilos of lead. That's how it balances on its pedestal, also in my garden.

7 Fluke
height 100 cm
Elm wood
 This is the same fluke as the one of the grey whale in 2. The orca is for real.

8 Bowhead whale
length 200 cm
Lime wood
This whale lives in arctic water. It's a member of the Right whale family, so called because when killed they stay afloat on their blubber. They were hunted to near-extinction.

9 Bowhead whale
length 26 cm
Cape dawson

10 False Killer whale
length 25 cm
Cape Dawson
They belong to the dolphin family and are not directly related to Orcas (Killer whales). They are sometimes in mass strandings.

11 Sperm whale
length 400 cm
Oaken wood
My favorite whale, I made two more large ones and several smaller ones. An adult sperm whale has up to 3000 liter of very fine oil in its massive had. It dives down to 3 km and increases its weight by pumping cold water along the oil. Thus it makes this heavier than water and is able to dive faster. When its deep down and wants to surface it pumps warm blood along the oil, making it lighter than water. Thus it can ascend faster. Its favorite prey is giant octopus, the disc-like scars from the suction cups you can often see on the skin of the whale.

12 Aqua-liner 2
dimensions 3500x200x100 cm
Beech wood
A winged water fantasy with a wink towards whales.