A Special Project for Mobil 1

To celebrate a significant number of anniversaries and accomplishments for Corvette and Mobil 1 at the 2023 LeMans 24, I was asked by Exxon-Mobil to come up with an idea for an art piece that would include the Le Mans winning Corvette as well as a number of other details referencing various anniversaries and accomplishments. They were also hoping to incorporate some Mobil 1 oil, but motor oil NEVER dries which made it impossible to add into the paint itself. I presented at least 2 different concepts and they went with what you see here. I designed and fabricated the large wood frame into which I added oil filter media cut out of from new Mobil 1 oil filters. It was tricky figuring out how to get the fanfold filter paper to align and fixed to the frame. But the coolest part was the final touch. A sample of the motor oil taken out of the winning car’s engine was sent to me by the lab at Exxon-Mobil which I soaked into the filter media.

The client also ordered a limited edition of prints of the image.

The Finished painting of the winning Corvette and drivers - the 2023 Le Mans 24hr

Checking fit of the painting into custom frame. Designing and building the frame added to the challenge!

One of 4 filters disassembled to extract the corrugated filter media.

Preparing the filter media to fit in the frame. Shreds of filter media everywhere!

With the frame painted and the filter media fixed in place it's time to soak it with the oil sample taken from the Corvette engine after the race, sent back to Exxon-Mobil to be analyzed.

The finished piece!