In making 'Baberaham Lincoln' (Thanks Allison) I teamed up with Allison and we created a large portrait of Abraham Lincoln out of spray painted pennies (and no... I don't think it's considered defacing currency.. just don't let big brother know!)
I chose Abraham Lincoln at random... Because I wanted to do a mosaic, and pennies seemed like a fun choice. Since Abraham Lincoln is on the penny, I thought it would be ironic! It was important to pick a medium that had something to do with the overall piece, to tie it all together.
We took a risk in using pennies because we were unsure if the scale would work for the piece - pennies were almost too big to arrange in an organized fashion. In the end, it worked out, and we spray painted Baberaham's iconic beard on to finish the piece.