When I first noticed the orange pipes, I learned from a work crew that the telephone company was bringing fiber optic cable to our rural neighborhood. My visual interest grew as more pipes began to swirl and swoop beside the country roads. They burrowed into the ground in one place and burst up from it in another. The bright synthetic orange color vividly contrasted with the natural roadside hues.

At first the pipes seemed like veins, arteries or sutures coursing through the earthʻs body. As I built a collection of images, the idea emerged of the pipe as a thread stitching together a patchwork quilt of rural Oregon. The sunny, optimistic color of the pipe promised more and faster communication between neighbors next door and across the globe.

The basic human need for connection, contact and communication was dramatically altered in the year 2020, due to the pandemic, social distancing, masks and politics.

This photographic project offered the public an opportunity to reflect on those changes. On January 3rd, 2021, the Independent Community Center continued its 102 year history of bringing community together by displaying the twenty foot long print. Visitors were invited to write in the margins expressing their feelings, thoughts or perceptions of the year 2020.

The one of a kind print was donated to The Benton County Historical Museum on January 11, 2021.