By chance, I stumbled across an extremely interesting artist- Mike Leavitt- and thanks to the Internet, was able to interview him about his upcoming exhibition of cardboard shoes in New York. (Read about the exhibition here/ separate Q&A here)

Like Shepard Fairey, Leavitt did a series of work inspired by Barack Obama. His funniest, I think, is “Ba-Rock Obama” which is a rock painted with the image of Obama. He also has a huge collection of action figures and makes wedding toppers and other figurines with polymer clay. His work, however, is all over the place, including painted pennies (these are really excellent), architectural models, and live performance art.