Gas station cover

You never know what will happen from one day to the next. This used to cause a lot of anxiety for me but now (with the help of some excellent therapy- thank you Nancy H) I have learned to just go with it! So to illustrate my point, I get this random email from a graduate student in the mid west who is making a cover for an abandoned gas station for her master's in textiles thesis. That caught my attention. I replied and said, "I'm in, what do you want me to do?" She replies- "make a square 36" x36" on the theme Big Oil and our dependence on it." Uh oh...political. So I think about it and instantly have the idea but I'll need to go to Joann's. I go to Joann's and know that I know that I know that the fabric I am picturing in my mind is there and it is...in the "novelty" section where I never go. Of course the sales person wants to know what I'm making. I knew she was going to ask me that. I told her flat out it was for a gas station cover. "Oh that's nice." REALLY???? I waited. Oh come on! Have there been 12 other people in here today doing the same thing? She finally had mulled it enough to ask, "What's a gas station cover?" So I told her and then she got into it and asked me to bring back a picture when it was completed. I thought that while she was cutting it for me I would dodge the issue by pretending I was interested in scissors. She obviously doesn't mind shouting at customers across the room...
So here we have the first pass. I used Jacquard fabric paints and applied them very fast and very thick so it will take awhile to dry. Can you tell it is the USA? Doesn't it look oily? Notice that I didn't include Canada? I thought about it- red and white with a maple leaf but then decided the full force of the statement would land on our shoulders (as usual) and the "wild elephant to the south" would take the hit. ( I actually read that quote in a Canadian newspaper when visiting Lime Green Myrna two summers ago. Imagine that.) So tomorrow I will do the next part and take a picture because it lasts longer. haha.