I got the idea for this piece on one of my trips to Vegas to meet with Wayde and Brett of 'Tanked'.

I grew up catching Maryland Blue Crabs at my Grandfather's house in South Jersey and have always wanted to do a piece based on them. The idea here is that instead of a crab that scavenges for food this crab's arms are positioned backwards more like that of a Praying Mantis, hence it's name. It waits for food to pass by and then it quickly strikes out and skewers it's meal on it's long pointed claws.

The log is based logs all up and down the Jersey shore. The barnacles are a sculpture as are the mussels which are actually molded sunflower seeds that just so happen to look like little tiny shells.

The little minnow that is skewered also appears in the Bird of War.