The Obama Pez (Carrboro, NC)

Okay, okay. It's not a Pez.

It's not Obama, either.

But it's always looked like an Obama Pez to me. Apparently, I'm not the only one. The kids in the artist's neighborhood call him "Obamahead."

It's actually called "Looking Up," and it is of the many incredibly cool pieces Carrboro metal sculptor Mike Roig has installed in the yard adjacent to his home and workshop. What was the inspiration for the piece and his feelings about what others see in "Looking Up?"

"I had launched into the creation of this sculpture intending only to play on the idea of a modern Easter Island monument. Wall Street was in melt down and I came to interpret this evolving sculpture as an allusion to those modern masters of our world creating their own Easter Island moment. Yet the moment I placed it in the yard the questions began as to whether it was supposed to be Obama. Since it suited my hopes in the coming election I decided to not discourage this interpretation and buck the zeitgeist of the times. Nevertheless I think this amply demonstrates that creation by the artist is one journey, and the life of the piece of art in the eye of its beholders is a whole other creative adventure. I call him 'Looking Up,' and leave the door open to further interpretation."