Forces of Nature: Natural Disasters Portrayed in Art
 
Vocabulary

Tornado - violent rotating column of air extending from a thunderstorm to the ground; one of nature’s most violent storms; also called cyclones or twisters.
meteorologist: scientist who studies the weather.

Mitigation - any activities that prevent, reduce, or relieve the damage caused by disasters.

Natural disasters - tornadoes, hurricanes, thunderstorms, floods, tsunamis, volcanoes, earthquakes, fires, avalanches, mud slides.

Point of view - viewpoint; perspective of an individual
woodcut print: print in which the picture or design is carved into a block of wood, coated with ink, and pressed against a piece of paper.

Haiku - thoughtful, unrhymed Japanese poem that attempts to express the essence of a moment in which nature is linked to human life.

Planning and Preparation

Become familiar with the background material for teachers. Collect newspaper accounts about natural disasters and assemble other materials. Make copies of the letter writing form, one per student. Make an overhead transparency of vocabulary page, if desired. Make copies of the student readings at the end of this lesson, one set for each group of students. Assemble them into folders or manila envelopes. Plan on student groups consisting of 4 students each.

Background Information for Teachers

The Art

Tornado over Kansas by John Steuart Curry captures a terrifying incident on a Midwestern farm as a family rushes to the storm shelter to escape a rapidly approaching twister, one of the most fearful natural disasters on earth. A sickly green light permeates the scene as the tornado drops down to the ground from an ominous layer of dense, brownish-black clouds. A sense of terrible urgency pervades the scene. The father, pictured as a heroic figure, pulls his barefoot daughter by the hand and protectively looks back to see that his sons are following closely behind. The mother pauses at the entrance to the shelter, cradling her baby in a patchwork quilt and looking back at her family with fear and alarm.

The cyclone seems to have struck with little warning, as the family has had time to gather only what they hold most dear – each other and their pets. An older boy carries three small puppies as their brown- and white-splotched mother anxiously looks upward towards them. A younger boy is desperately trying to hold on to an uncooperative black cat. In the near distance, horses wheel in frenzied panic directly in the path of the rapidly advancing tornado. The only unconcerned participant in this drama is a white chicken standing at the foot of the stairs, to all appearances, oblivious to imminent danger.

Painted in 1929, Tornado over Kansas presents visual evidence of the hard life experienced by farm families in the Midwest and West. The man and his boys wear overalls, the working garment of the time, and the two younger children are barefoot. The mother probably made most of their clothes and used leftover scraps of fabric to make the patchwork quilt that swaddles her baby. The weatherworn house and outbuildings are plain, and the only toy visible is a simple child’s pull cart. No evidence of electric power is visible; there is a wagon but no car. Farming was a difficult business, always at the mercy of the elements. Natural disasters could arrive at any time in the form of tornadoes, windstorms, dust storms, blizzards, floods, drought, or grasshoppers. The life this family has been able to wrest from this ground has been meager but honest.

Tornado over Kansas pictures a time just before the Dust Bowl years that devastated Midwestern farmers such as the artist’s father. Though this painting depicts a particular event, time, and place, it transcends the region through its American icons – the patriarchal father, the family, the farmhouse, pets, even a bit of picket fence – at the mercy of an overpowering and destructive force of nature. As a child growing up in Kansas, the artist John Steuart Curry had firsthand experience of tornadoes. Kansas is the state most associated with tornadoes, due in large part to L. Frank Baum’s popular book, first published in 1900, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Tornado Over Kansas also captured the popular imagination, as it was widely reproduced.

The Artist and the Art World

The artist of Tornado Over Kansas is John Steuart Curry (1897-1946) member of the American regionalist painters, along with his friends Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton. The regionalist artists sought to create a national art characterizing the American people, their history, and their stories in non-idealized ways. Sensitive to the feelings of frustration and lost dreams brought about by the Great Depression, the regionalists endeavored to help their fellow citizens regain a sense of pride. The mainstream art world of the time was generally not inclusive of the regionalist’s ideals and the vast philosophical gulf between the two is readily apparent. Tornado over Kansas was painted in 1929, the same year the Museum of Modern Art opened in New York City with an exhibition of works by Vincent van Gogh, Cezanne, Gauguin, and Seurat.

Tornadoes

A tornado is a violent rotating column of air extending from a thunderstorm to the ground. One of nature’s most violent storms, tornadoes are also called twisters or cyclones. The only shelter from a tornado on the flat prairie is underground. Tornadoes start when air warms quickly and rises, allowing cool air to rush underneath, causing the air to spiral. Tornadoes start over land and inflict the most damage when they touch down, obliterating everything they hit. The winds of a tornado are the most violent that occur on earth, reaching speeds of up to 300 mph. Tornadoes usually last less than an hour, traveling distances of about 20 miles. They are found primarily in the United States, usually in the Midwest, “tornado alley,” during spring and early summer.

Tornadoes are feared with good reason; their behavior is unpredictable and often bizarre. Almost anything can be sucked up into a tornado; horses and cattle have been blown through the air and chickens have been stripped of their feathers. Many lives are lost to tornadoes because people fail to respond to warnings issued by the meteorologists at the National Weather Service.

Interdisciplinary Connections: Natural Environments
Nancy Walkup and Pam Stephens, Crystal Productions

Body of the Lesson/Instruction

Display Tornado over Kansas. Begin discussion by asking: What is this picture about? No doubt your students will say it’s about a tornado, but encourage them to suggest other terms that mean the same thing (see vocabulary list). Write the vocabulary on the chalkboard or use the transparency on the overhead projector during discussion. Point out that the painting depicts a natural disaster. For questioning, focus primarily on what can be discovered from visual evidence that can be seen in the painting. Ask: What is happening in this painting? Who are these people? Why do you think the artist painted this scene of a tornado? What did he want us to see? What did he want us to feel? How is this a natural disaster? What affect do you think the tornado will have on this family and their farm? Is there anything else the family can do to escape the tornado? What time period do you think the painting shows? (the past, 1949) How do you know? (clothing, buildings) What is missing that we have today? (electricity, among other things) Have a student locate Kansas on a map. How far away is it from your school? What do you think is the purpose of this painting? How is it different than a photograph of a tornado? Which might appear more threatening? Which might be more valuable? Why?

Ask: Do you think the colors of the sky in this painting are realistic? (yes) How do you know? (perhaps from first hand experience or from television or the movies) How would it affect the meaning of the painting if there were no people in it? Have any of you experienced a tornado? What was it like? (briefly share stories at this point) Ask students to suggest further questions they would like to have answered about the painting. Write them on the board or overhead as they are generated.

Ask: What are some other natural disasters? (start a list of these on the board or overhead) Display and discuss the term “mitigation”: any activities that prevent, reduce, or relieve the damage caused by disasters. Ask: What examples of mitigation can you find in the painting? (the underground storm shelter)

At this point divide students into small groups and give each group a packet you have assembled from the master copies of the student readings in this lesson. Ask students to take 15 minutes to share the readings and to see if they can find any answers to the questions they earlier posed. When they are ready, have each group take turns explaining and discussing their responses. If any questions still remain unanswered, ask for volunteers to look for answers over the Internet either at home or school and share them during the next class.

Ask students to define the term “point of view.” How many points of view are possible in the painting? Read the class the following quote, the first newspaper account known of by a witness to the interior of a tornado:

“I looked up and to my astonishment I saw right into the heart of the tornado. There was a circular opening in the center of the funnel, about fifty to one hundred feet in diameter and extending straight upward for a distance of at least half a mile, as best I could judge under the circumstances. The walls of this opening were rotating clouds and the whole was brilliantly lighted with constant flashes of lightning which zigzagged from side to side.”

First known newspaper account by a farmer who looked up into the funnel of a tornado.

Ask students to each assume the point of view or perspective of one of the characters in the painting or to remember an experience they personally had with a tornado or other disasters. Ask students to write a letter to a family member or friend describing the experience and its effect on their lives.

Discuss the criteria that will be used as assessment for the illustrated letters.

Suggested criteria for illustrated letters:

• The illustrated letters should tell a story about a natural disaster from an individual’s point of view.
• The illustration should depict the story told in the letter.
• Correct language and grammar should be used in the letter.
• The letter should include main idea, supporting details, and elaboration.

Distribute the letter writing form for students to use for a draft. When the drafts are complete, have students copy their letters on white drawing or copy paper and add a drawing to illustrate the story in their letter. Drawings can be completed in pencil, color pencil, or marker. Keep the letters for display at the end of the unit.