Description:  Baku is resting curled up in a daylily flower, while Caterpillar is eating the lily.  Lily leaf wraps around piece.
Colors:  Lily - warm pinks, natural, soft green, coral-red accents, with maroon spots on petals.  Baku - grey, rose-grey, with red & yellow flames, natural spots on hide.
Story:  A mythological Baku, eater of bad dreams, resting after a hard night of work. As variously described in Japanese legend and art books, Baku appears to have "a short trunk, hairy body, spotted hide, and flames coming from its underbody."
    Here, the Artist's creative interpretation depicts a young Baku resting in a daylily flower. These flowers boom for only one day.  The caterpillar is eating the flower as fast as time is deteriorating it ...much akin the ephemeral quality of a dream. When the flower is spent/eaten, the day is over and the Baku will awaken ready to begin his nightly activity patrolling for nightmares.
    The relative scale of the elephant-like Baku, the familiar lily flower, and the caterpillar enhances the magical quality of this piece. Sculptural " humor" is intended through the similar curves of the worm and the Baku's trunk and the spotted flower mimicking the Baku's spotted hide.  A mischievous smile is partially revealed on the left side of the Baku's face, suggesting the Baku enjoying his own dream.  He holds the flower petal in his mouth as if a pacifier, hinting that he is very young and is clinging to his reverie ...as if to keep Time and Caterpillar from devouring his nest before he is ready to wake.
Note:  Looking beyond the caterpillar reveals the inner curving of the coiled petal.  The petal represents the universally symbolic " spiral of consciousness."  It is hidden in the carving to suggest the subconscious and sleep states. (This piece requires intimate study and bright light to appreciate the numerous hidden surfaces, each carved, finished, and painted, and the many angles from which the artist intended the piece be viewed.
Orientation:   Piece sits with caterpillar facing down with Baku exposed.