Image of Realism

Although realism is generally my favorite style of art, I really wanted to step out of my comfort zone and try someting new. So instead of having an extreme focus on realistic detail, I decided to base my projects on a theme that did quite the opposite. By presenting installations and scupltures that aren't exact replicas of what I want to convey, the viewer must meet me halfway and come up with his or her own interpretations of what the piece is attempting to get across.

Realism

re·al·ism –noun

Fine Arts.
a. treatment of forms, colors, space, etc., in such a manner as to emphasize their correspondence to actuality or to ordinary visual experience.
b. (usually initial capital letter) a style of painting and sculpture developed about the mid-19th century in which figures and scenes are depicted as they are experienced or might be experienced in everyday life.

Image of Abstraction

The abstract is a recurring theme in my projects as I don't want to just recreate natural disasters, I want to make them my own. So by taking away the realism, I can avoid connotations people have with images and create something new that is hopefully more thought-provoking and successful.

Abstraction

ab·strac·tion
–noun

Fine Arts.
a. the abstract qualities or characteristics of a work of art.
b. a work of art, esp. a nonrepresentational one, stressing formal relationships.

Door Project

This piece was a conglomeration of the ideas each member of our group created. The design itself was ambitious, but we really wanted to express a welcoming entrance, and what better way to do that than with a door? So we constructed the arch and highlighted the keystone as a figurative and literal element that holds the door itself the idea of home together.

"Home"

Home To Me

When I think of home, I don't think of it as a specific place with four walls and somewhere to sleep, but instead, I think of a feeling. I think of a feeling of comfort and love, of friends and family. This picture is a perfect example of this feeling because it does not necessarily represent a place where I live, but it reminds me of a feeling I had spending time with friends and family in an inviting environment. When I can laugh and love freely and without judgement, that is when I feel home.

Natural Disaster

A natural disaster is the consequence of a natural hazard (e.g. volcanic eruption, earthquake,and landslide) which moves from potential in to an active phase, and as a result affects human activities. Human vulnerability, exacerbated by the lack of planning or lack of appropriate emergency management, leads to financial, structural, and human losses. The resulting loss depends on the capacity of the population to support or resist the disaster, their resilience. This understanding is concentrated in the formulation: "disasters occur when hazards meet vulnerability". A natural hazard will hence never result in a natural disaster in areas without vulnerability, e.g. strong earthquakes in uninhabited areas. The term natural has consequently been disputed because the events simply are not hazards or disasters without human involvement. The degree of potential loss can also depend on the nature of the hazard itself, ranging from a single lightning strike, which threatens a very small area, to impact events, which have the potential to end civilization. For lists of natural disasters, see the list of disasters or the list of deadliest natural disasters.

Earth

Drought

Fire

Forest Fire

Wind

Tornado

Water

Tsunami

Iconography

i·co·nog·ra·phy [ahy-kuh-nog-ruh-fee] –noun, plural -phies.

1. symbolic representation, esp. the conventional meanings attached to an image or images.

2. subject matter in the visual arts, esp. with reference to the conventions regarding the treatment of a subject in artistic representation.

3. the study or analysis of subject matter and its meaning in the visual arts; iconology.

4. a representation or a group of representations of a person, place, or thing, as a portrait or a collection of portraits.

Burning Love

When asked to construct a sculpture that reminds us of home, my initial response was to think about the joy and warmth my home brings me but also about the simultaneous fear of potentially losing something so important to me. While my theme has revolved around natural disasters, the idea of an entire home getting demolished in a split second has been a harsh reality resonating in my thoughts. While the warmth of a fireplace reminds me of my home, I can't help but think about its out-of-control counterpart that could so easily destroy everything I love. This sculpture is a represenation of that love and fear coexisting in my mind.

Beautiful Disaster

Train of Thought

This sketch illustrates the thought process behind the idea of natural disasters as something beautiful. By demonstrating my own perceptual concept through words and abstract lines, I developed a visual representation of the contrast between good and evil which is a fundamental element of my overall research. The harsh lines of disaster clash with the flowing swirls of beauty, but the idea that both can coexist and perhaps even stem from each other reiterates my theory that such tragedies as natural disasters can, in fact, create something utterly surprising and, with a little optimism, something beautiful.

Annotated Bibliography

Alexander, David. Confronting Catastrophe : New Perspectives on Natural Disasters. New York: Oxford UP, 2000.
This book introduces a new outlook on natural tragedies and offers different methods and ideas on how to deal with the aftermath of a disaster.
Alexander, David. Natural Disasters. New York: Chapman & Hall, 1993.
Alexander researches various natural disasters occurring all over the world and gives detailed information and accounts about disasters that have happened in the past.
Bawden, Garth, and Richard Reycraft, eds. Environmental Disaster and the Archaeology of Human Response. Albuquerque: N.M. : Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, 2000. 1-228.
This book not only offers factual information about natural disasters but it also analyzes the common tendencies of human response to such tragedies.
Burton, Ian, Robert Kates, and Gilbert White. The Environment as Hazard. New York: Oxford UP, 1978. 1-240.
Ebert, Charles. Disasters : an Analysis of Natural and Human-Induced Hazards. Dubuque: Kendall/Hunt Pub., 2000.
An in-depth investigation of common disasters, this book is beneficial to my research because it also explore the role of humans in creating and responding to disasters of all kinds.
"Global Environmental Change." Environmental Hazards 6 (2005). Consort. 2 Feb. 2008.
This article offers insight on issues our environment faces in terms of natural disasters as well as the extreme damage our planet can endure in the process.
Kovach, Robert. Earth's Fury : an Introduction to Natural Hazards and Disasters. Englewood Cliffs: N.J. : Prentice-Hall, 1995. 1-214.
A fundamental look at natural disasters, Earth’s Fury presents a helpful overview of various disasters and offers ideas on which natural devastations I can focus on for my upcoming projects.
Murck, Barbara, Brian Skinner, and Stephen Porter. Dangerous Earth : an Introduction to Geologic Hazards. New York: J. Wiley, 1997.
"Natural Disasters." Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences 5 (2005). 2 Feb. 2008.
A detailed article on the scientific aspects of natural disasters.
Newson, Lesley. Devastation! : the World's Worst Natural Disasters. New York: DK Pub., 1998.
An interesting collection of natural disasters made famous by their tremendous impact and devastation on the planet.
Nuhfer, Edward, Richard Proctor, Paul Moser, and John Allen. The Citizens' Guide to Geologic Hazards. Arvada: The Institute, 1993. 1-134.
A scientific analysis of geological hazards translated into straightforward terms for a more clear understanding of the planet’s natural disasters.
Robinson, Andrew. Earth Shock : Hurricanes, Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Tornadoes and Other Forces of Nature. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1993. 1-304.
This book offers a wide range of fascinating disasters and gives visual documentation of such events in action.
"Summary of Natural Hazard Statistics for the United States." National Weather Service (2001).
This is a statistical fact sheet that gives background information on some natural disasters that have already affected our country.
Verschuur, Gerrit. Cosmic Catastrophes. Reading: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co., 1978. 1-214.
Waltham, Tony. Catastrophe: the Violent Earth. New York: Crown, 1978. 1-170.
An in-depth analysis of natural disasters, their processes and effects, this book gives detailed information about the hazards and also shows documented images of various disasters.