Prometheus & Epimetheus

My sketchbook practices are just as important as my grand narrative works. In this series, I chose to highlight those practices and create an allegory for forethought and afterthought using the Greek Titan brothers Prometheus and Epimetheus as my vehicles for expression. I emanated Prometheus’ continuous act of doing and giving – forethought – while leaving room for reflections and revisions to act upon later much like Epimetheus – afterthought. I created 100 sketchbook pages filled with figure studies and rendered drawings to echo Prometheus’ incessant act of creating man, while simultaneously working on multiple pages at a time. I would revisit each drawing over a period and add additional elements repeatedly to complete the sketchbook page. Random doodles, finished works, notes and reflections, genre drawings, or repeated practices grace each page and gives insight into my thoughts as an artist, no matter how arbitrary or banal. 

I expand upon my nomadic studio practices with new and favorite locales to fuel my inspiration and used two models to depict the Titan brothers. Prometheus is identified throughout the series as a contemplative and willful figure with his hair long and straight while his brother, Epimetheus, is portrayed as clumsily bewildered with his hair disheveled or slicked back. Throughout the course of this series, I lived my concept with constant ideas and plans followed through and prepped, while mishaps, reflections, and trance-like instincts took control and propagated. I allowed the growth of each sketchbook page to reveal itself through a degree of preplanning while leaving room for inventiveness and my naiveté. 

Dani Papa

"Did, Done, & Doing: An Allegory of Forethought & Afterthought"

Mixed Media in Sketchbooks

8" x 10" (each sketchbook page)

100" x 40" (full composition)

2023