Prometheus! The supreme trickster and god of fire

Artist David Popa

Ephemeral Earth Frescos painted with naturally sourced pigments by David Popa of the Greek god Prometheus: The supreme trickster and god of fire.

“Prometheus” is a project located on the island of Crete, Greece. The project spans from painting, photography, videography, writing and 3D sculpture. The end result is the documentation of a massive ephemeral earth fresco mural that will ultimately fade with the elements.

For this piece I got really experimental with the natural materials and actually made my own black pigment from coconut charcoal

David Popa: This is is the final image from the “Prometheus” project. Thank you all so much for your support and kind words about this project. I have to give a ton of thanks to my small team for sticking it out with me. My brother Nathan Popa for handling the logistics, filming, photography and keeping me from falling into the cracks. My wife Tiia Janita Popa for keeping sane with my wild ideas and handling the kids while I was gone. And also for my childhood buddy Thaddaeus Andreades for helping with the total vision of the project and collaborating to create a stunning 3D sculpture of the piece.

And as always I wanted to make it clear that this work was done with natural pigments and water. For this piece I got really experimental with the natural materials and actually made my own black pigment from coconut charcoal 🥥 as well as used oyster shell white 🦪, traditionally called “Gofun” from the last providers in Japan. They leave oysters out to decompose for 10-15 years before creating the chalk/pigment. These pigments were used in adjacent to the earth pigments I normally use. The piece is temporary and will wash away.

Check out the project page for more details!

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