Wildlife paintings by an amateur artist barely saw the light of day before being forever entombed under miles of Wyoming earth.
Stan Parker's canvas has been the Kern River natural gas pipeline - just a bare metal tube before he applied his paint brush.Parker is a welder from Douglas who worked on the 900-mile pipeline that runs from Opal in southwestern Wyoming to southern California. The line is expected to be completed later this year.
During down time on the job, Parker entertained fellow pipeline workers with his drawings of Wyoming animals and birds.
"One day I just got this urge to draw while I was waiting," Parker said. "When I realized what I had done, I was a little worried. You're not supposed to write on the pipe."
He got a scare when his boss said sections of the pipeline that had been painted had to be cut out.
"Then he laughed and said he wanted it to hang on his wall," he said. "He was kidding, but I had a few bad minutes."
From that point on, Parker continued with his art. As the other workers came upon the sketches of eagles, bears, buffalo, antelope and deer, they began watching for live animals along the construction route.
"A lot of the workers weren't from Wyoming and really weren't noticing all of our wildlife, which we came in contact with almost daily," Parker said.
"They used to come by and see me sketching and comment that they saw an antelope or deer," he said.
But Parker wasn't the only one to put his imprint on the pipeline.
Some of the workers had been writing comments by Parker's pictures.
"The guys would give me an `A' or whatever, then say they'd seen one of the (animals) and the date, or make funny remarks," he said.