Humankind is made of both dirt and the divine yet is at one with neither.  Encased in our bodies of dust, we strive for redemption and transcendence.  We struggle. We scour. We reach. We burgeon- even as we tarnish and disintegrate.  This work explores themes of growth and decay, original sin and redemption, and perseverance despite futility.   We see a girl quietly engaged in daily rituals of self-cleaning while entombed in dark, loamy garden soil.  As the girl comes undone, a bloom of brightly colored flowers emerge.  This imagery reflects my personal belief that humans are fragile, blind, and irreparably flawed yet eternally hopeful in the midst of a hostile world. To create this series, I built a 6x8 foot raised garden bed on my back patio and filled it with planting soil and live plants and flowers.  The model had to be dug in and out between each shot and each plant and flower replanted.  The images were photographed from a ladder positioned seven feet above the planter.