Preparedness & Postcards

Hand-painted journaling of Disasters and Travel

Watercolor, with its blend of unpredictability and flow, mirrors the lessons of crisis work and the adventure of travel: patience, adaptability, and finding beauty in what cannot be controlled. 

Most of my professional career (1999 – 2025) was in disaster response in Louisiana.

Preparedness: In the disaster industry, as in many other industries, minutes matter. Time is a scarce resource. Implementation of an arranged sequence of timely decisions and choreographed actions across multiple systems and agencies requires extensive pre-planning.

Alongside this demanding career, I discovered watercolor painting. Painting was cathartic, providing an active means of processing turbulent disaster activities. Painting restored balance.

Watercolor became a means to capture what couldn’t be briefed - grief, resolve, exhaustion, and hope. Responders working shoulder to shoulder. A bottle of water passed hand to hand.

There is magic in sending a hand-painted postcard of art to a friend, colleague, or family member.

I continued to apply my watercolor passion to my adventures in travel.

These concepts of disasters, recovery, contingency planning, resiliency, and time management are intertwined in daily living, travel, and certainly the development of any professional career.

About the Artist: Rosanne Prats

Rosanne Prats

Disaster Responder, Traveler, Artist

The website was developed in commemoration of the ESF8 Disaster Network.

Postcard Gallery

Hand-painted Journal of Disasters & Travel

Amanda Ames & Lee Thornton

There are friendships forged in sunlight and others hammered out in the floodwaters of disaster, in midnight briefings, boil advisories, broken mains, and hurricane winds. Amanda and I share the latter kind.

When Amanda and Lee asked me to create the artwork for their wedding, it wasn’t just an honor, it was an invitation to tell a richer story. A love letter not only to Amanda and Lee’s future, but to the quiet strength of bonds built in “battles.”

This watercolor was created with reverence, joy, and deep admiration. The champagne on ice, the blooming flowers, and the riot of colors reflect the beauty of their upcoming wedding and future together.

At the heart of their Wedding Invitation is a proud pelican - Louisiana’s enduring symbol of care, sacrifice, and resilience - now bearing a monogrammed A for Ames and T for Thornton, enshrined in heraldry. The stylized pelican and encircled fish - which are Louisiana resources - echo not just state pride, but decades of grit, grace, and guardianship over sacred public resources.

Water, watercolor, and disasters are strangely aligned. All are fluid, unpredictable, essential. But they can also carry color, story, and restoration. In the turbulence of disaster response, Amanda and I found not only purpose but friendship. I celebrate not just her love story, but the extraordinary path that brought them together.

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