Trained as a silversmith and self-taught as a blacksmith, L. Brent Kington was a distinguished American master who is celebrated for reintroducing the ancient craft of blacksmithing to the modern world of fine art. In 1961, Kington came to Carbondale to lead the metals program at Southern Illinois University, where he offered the first studio iron classes in an academic setting anywhere in the country. Kington created his own work for over 50 years, exhibited in almost 400 exhibitions, and produced a body of work that reveals a personal search for meaningful form in sculpture.