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.