herman de vries: 'Other artists work with mechanical things. I work with nature'

When I go to visit herman de vries (he stylises his name in lower case on his artwork "to avoid hierarchy") in his house and studio in the Black Forest of Germany I don't know what to expect. Upon Googling him pictures emerge of a naked man who resembles a scrawny Santa Claus, so I am reassured when he opens the door fully clothed.