Acrylic and ink on canvas board

2024

The incident I am referencing in this piece took place many years ago. I needed to get an oil change for my vehicle so I took it to a new shop that had recently opened in my town. The shop I usually took my vehicle to was too busy that day so that is why I went elsewhere. When I arrived at the new shop, I noticed that the garage bays were empty and there were no other vehicles near the building. I thought I was lucky and would get my oil change done quickly but the two employees who were present said that they were on their lunch break and wouldn’t be working on any vehicles. I asked when they would be available to work and one of them told me “in an hour or so, maybe.” They put some emphasis on “maybe” which seemed a bit weird so I asked how long it would take to have an oil change done. The other employee said it would be several hours because they were backed up with other customers. I looked around again and still didn’t see any other vehicles nearby. This oil change shop shared a parking lot with another business and there were other vehicles in the lot, but they were all close to the other business and far away from this shop. It didn’t make sense for the shop employees to move their vehicles that far away when there were plenty of empty parking spaces right next to their building. When I asked about the location of the other vehicles, the first employee rolled their eyes at me and said they parked them “off to the side.” I didn’t believe these employees were telling me the truth so I asked if their supervisor was around and the second employee got up and told me that the supervisor was on their lunch break and wouldn’t be back for a while. This employee had an aggressive posture and I felt a little bit threatened so I left.

I didn’t get my vehicle’s oil changed that day and later that afternoon I called the oil change shop and talked to the supervisor. I explained the situation from that morning and the supervisor didn’t seem to care. They offered to change my vehicle’s oil the next day but I wasn’t interested in giving money to a business that treated potential customers the way I had been treated.

This artwork is a parody of the oil change shop I went to. I’m pretty sure most viewers will know which shop I went to. The wording I used at the bottom of the can is a modification of a slogan that is used by this company.

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