Historically, bananas have had just two main uses: 1) a source of nourishment, and 2) a handy way to spin rival plumbers off course in a go-kart race.

As it turns out, though, there's a third use.

For the past six years, 39-year-old Stephan Brusche from Rotterdam, the Netherlands, has been turning them into works of art.

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Brusche uses a combination of toothpicks, a knife, and a ball-point pen to transform his bananas. The whole process -- from sketching out an idea to sharing it online -- takes two to three hours.

You can see the stages broken down in the video below:

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"I draw on the banana with a regular ballpoint pen," Brusche explained. "After that I strategically cut away pieces of the peel to give it a more 3D look and feel. To hold pieces of the peel up I stick toothpicks in the banana behind the peel. Sometimes I also use paint."

When the banana's ready he snaps it on his iPhone, adds a filter and uploads it to his Instagram account.

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Brusche tumbled into the world of banana art almost by accident.

"My wife had been pushing me to use Instagram for awhile, saying it would be great for promoting my illustrations and comics I'd been doing in my spare time alongside my work as a graphic designer," he explained.

One day during his lunch hour, he decided to try it out. As he was in the office, though, interesting photograph opportunities were tricky to find.

"I then noticed I still had a banana left from lunch and figured it would make a fun picture if I just drew a little happy face on it," Brusche said. "I discovered how pleasant it actually is to draw on a banana -- there is just something about how smooth the ballpoint pen flows on the structure of the banana peel.

"I made another 'fruitdoodle', as I like to call them, the next day. One with a grumpy face, for balance sake. And after that I just kinda challenged myself to see what else I could come up with to draw on a banana, and I never stopped since."

After awhile, Brusche noticed that his banana art was getting more likes and attention than his other work. From then on, he began to focus on it more and more.

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Brusche's Instagram page is filled with hundreds of "fruitdoodles" -- mostly they involve bananas, but a few -- like the "pearguin" and the creepy homage to Itbelow -- bring in other fruits, too.

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When we asked Brusch for his favourite banana creations, he listed the following three: "The Creation of Adam", "Fishbone" (which he describes as a "turning point" for him) and "Marilyn Monroe":

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Over the past few years, Brusche has built up around 52,000 followers on Instagram. He's now quit his full-time job as a graphic designer to focus on his artwork.

"I'm getting more and more projects and it became harder and harder to combine it with my day job," he explained.

"So I made a radical decision to commit 100% to my banana art."

Oh, and if you were wondering what he does with the bananas after he's finished, don't worry: they don't go to waste.

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You can see more of Brusche's work on Instagram, Twitter, and his website.