WELCOME to the July 2015 issue of the Natural Hazards Observer. I think this is a stunning issue, and I hope you’ll share my wonderment for the words and images in the pages that follow.

The focus of this issue is art in the face of disaster—as a form of creative expression, as a pathway to healing, and as a means for contributing to community. Although this is the first time so many contributions in the Observer have been dedicated to this topic, I hope it will not be the last.

For many centuries, artists have served as commentators on and chroniclers of disaster, war, famine, disease, and other forms of crisis. As you will see in the subsequent pages, contemporary artists continue this tradition by depicting the all-too-real, as well as the surreal, elements of the hazards and disasters that increasingly mark our lives.