Katirna Chronicles

Art 112
Zach McDougall
2D Design M, W
KATRINA CHRONICLES ART CRITICQUE
Katrina Chronicles :Volumes I and II, Peter Precourts recollection of hurricane Katrina, will be on display at the University of Maine at Augusta’s Danforth art Gallery from Thursday December 2, 2010 until Friday January 21, 2011. Peter Precourt himself describes the art as being “told in a visual form that hovers somewhere between a graphic novel, a dairy entry, a painting, a memoir, a testimony, and a flippant conversation”. It is his personal story of the events that occurred leading to and surrounding his Katrina experience. It is a story of the “bastardization” of Mississippi, in wake of the media coverage of political racism, in New Orleans, L.A, and few people know that it was Mississippi that received the brunt force of Katrina and was the worst hit. While his story is just one of thousands it still one that most who went through Katrina can relate to , stories of losing everything, picking up and moving away and a struggle to re-create. His intentional use of less than desirable materials is to show a multitude of things, one the “imperfection of memory” (being unable to recall every detail perfectly), two is to show that there is a possibility for change and improvement in disaster situations, and three to show the “restorative power of storytelling” bringing something positive out of such a negative.
In Katrina Chronicles: Volume I: page 19, you can tell what message the artist is trying to convey just by looking at the art, let alone the text. Peter Precourt did a lot of the work in this story with acrylic and encaustic paints, to really drive home the imperfect tone he was trying to set. In Volume I: page 19 you can see that well, you can also see he chose to do the top half in color and the bottom in black. His intention in this is to draw your intention to the primary event in the painting, a man with his hand on his head and a woman putting a hand on his shoulder. You get the impression that this is a man discouraged, and his wife is by his side trying to comfort him. He uses very light tones and while the art looks simplistic, it has very complex form and really draws your attention to the top. This was done so that you as the onlooker will read his story in secession. The next piece your eyes are drawn to is the two men on phones with no color at all, and a bunch of speech bubbles with text in them. Looking further at the image and reading the text, you will see that it’s just a piece of the overall message he is sending. In the text the man is upset because yet another disappointing phone call about a job at a college campus. The man is trying to be strong and not so his frustrations to his wife but you get the feeling he is transparent. In one of the speech blurbs at the bottom of the 30” x22” sheet, the artist says something about calling his dad to get some comforting words but then realizing his dad passed away six months ago. You can’t help but wonder if maybe the two mean taking on the phone at the bottom are him and his dad.
Overall the piece is put together well with concrete focal points, engaging images and telling his story through a multitude of devices. In conclusion in the center of all his images, plastered all around you in this square room, you have some intricate paintings of roller coasters. Coming into this show with just basic knowledge of the title, Katrina Chronicles: Volume I and II, you can develop your own interoperation about the roller coaster ride he was taken on and the one he is about to take you on.