A major transformation for a former combat medic from Minnesota, who is channeling an inner change into a small protest against war.
"This is the hardest metal on the planet, steel, and you can change its shape just by heat and by a hammer."
Diana Oestreich hammers away at the barrel of a gun, flattening the steel, which will eventually be made it into a garden tool. She does it from a small-town studio along Lake Superior's North Shore. She became an artist after serving as a combat medic following 9/11.
Oestreich says she was commanded to run over an Iraqi child to keep her convoy rolling, and keep her battle buddies safe. It became the impetus for change.
"I was 23-years-old, and I got sent to the invasion of Iraq," she says. "And I spent 397 days as a combat medic and it absolutely convinced me to lay down my weapon and to fight for peace."
Oestreich says she now transforms guns from people who have gone through trauma.
"Either it was a tragedy, or there was a suicide, or oftentimes veterans want to change the weapons in their life," Oestreich explains.
She wrote a book as well, called "Waging Peace: One Soldier's Story of Putting Love First."
"I went to war as a combat medic after 9/11 in Iraq, and war convinced me of peace," she added. "And then I spend my time making them into art that builds the world I want to see, which is more gardens and less guns."
Oestreich was recently part of a big art show in Northern Minnesota.
