Monica Coyne, Artist Blacksmith

---

Steel is made from  the elements carbon and iron. Iron is in your blood. You know what it tastes like. You exhale carbon. Steel has been the most important material in the development of humanity and in the destruction of thousands of other species. Three things laid down on this planet. An organism and two elements. And look, what a mess. But the power is unmistakable. The human hand and this material. Can we wield it with a different intent? What if we believed that humans were interdependent on the rest of the universe, bound to the rocks, plants, water and lifeforms through shared elements and DNA? If we all knew this to be true. Would we behave better? Would we see a way forward that benefits the whole system? I want to find answers with my hands in the metal.  I am a human. I am complicit in the ugliness that we have created here but I am of this planet. The breathtaking beauty that I see around me everywhere, I come from that too. I should be able to be that too.

Read more from Monica Coyne in Edition Five where she considers carbon and iron – elements that unite us with every living thing – and questions the mighty but destructive forces of her trade.