Golden Driller Transformed Into French Artist To Promote New Exhibit At The Philbrook Museum

If you've driven by the Golden Driller lately, you've probably noticed a big change. For two weeks, starting last week, the Tulsa landmark will look like a French artist to promote Philbrook's newest exhibit: Rembrandt to Monet.

The project took several weeks to complete, from the design to the actual transformation.

The Philbrook partnered with Visit Tulsa and 'Quik Print' for the project, but before the transformation could start, Jeff Martin, the Philbrook's Director of Communications, said that he took a design to the Tulsa County group that oversees the Golden Driller.

"It takes a couple of days to install it, but it's really a multi-week if not a multi-month process to do that. It's a lot of work for two weeks of having it on view, but we're hoping that for the two weeks, we'll see a huge groundswell of not just interest from folks like yourself but also people sharing it, taking pictures, creating a buzz that we want to be able to get them excited about this exhibition," Martin said.

As for the actual design and transformation, the idea was to have the Golden driller look like it had been painted, even though it really isn't. Huge strips of vinyl were printed to make the design of the shirt, while a lot of time went into making sure the material was molded properly onto the landmark without causing any damage.

While the transformation is unique, it may be a while before Philbrook does something like this with the Golden Driller again.

"I think this will be the only time for a while. You know it has to make sense, and you don't want to play that hand too many times but hopefully, people will keep doing and it using that space for exciting things," Martin said.

The Golden Driller will continue to sport the look for about another week, and the exhibit at the Philbrook runs until the end of May.