The End of Innocence

Adam and Hewan, the ancestor of all.

The "End of Innocence" was designed to be like one of those giant paintings you see in a church, where multiple panels come together to tell a single story. Think about the ceiling of the Vatican or a cave church in Ethiopia. All of these are designed to give life to a story with many chapters. This is our version of that. Here, we have the entire story of Adam and Hewan. Starting from the bottom, Adam is born from the dust, like a little baby in the womb. In the middle circle, Adam and Hewan feel shame. At the top, they are kicked out of paradise. Here, the story begins where it ends. Adam is born from the dust, given the chance to live in paradise. But eventually, he must return to the dust to grow his own food. To me, that's the end of innocence. Nature, the central character in the story. So when we designed this frame, we took pictures of the natural desert landscape, we shared, and assembled them. There were many natural smooth hollows. We used them as frames to place all of the central characters in the story: here, desert, branch, and cub. I think this is one of the most intricately crafted pieces we have ever made. It was very challenging to make, especially how all the pieces fit together. But in the end, it was our responsibility to tell this story the way it deserves to be told.