Mike Leavitt, an internationally recognized Vashon-based artist, brings his signature blend of craftsmanship, humor, and satire to Good Buy! Cruel World, his new exhibit at Vashon Center for the Arts (VCA), running November 7–30. We talk about the unique artistic and professional journey that’s taken him from his Seattle roots to years in New York City—and finally, to Vashon.

Seattle-born, Mike has built an art career out of turning the familiar into the uncanny, using humor, satire, and craftsmanship to challenge how we consume culture, politics, and products. Good Buy! Cruel World brings together his biting blend of sculpture, installation, and collectible art, all aimed at dissecting the absurdities of modern consumerism.

Leavitt grew up in the Pacific Northwest, where a childhood of model-making and exposure to design through his mother’s work at Boeing shaped his hands-on approach. After briefly studying at Pratt, he struck out on his own to avoid “working for The Man” and began creating socially engaged art—like portable homeless shelters from salvaged materials—long before sustainability became an art-world buzzword.

He is perhaps best known for his Art Army action figures, hand-sculpted icons ranging from Bernie Sanders to Banksy, equal parts tribute and satire. His King Cuts series turned film directors into grotesque hybrids of themselves and their creations—George Lucas as Jabba, Spielberg as E.T.—a reminder of how art can devour its makers.

Most recently, his work has taken on the disposable excess of consumer culture. In exhibitions like Trash Talking, Leavitt transforms recycled packaging into guns, sneakers, and toys, skewering everything from gun violence to corporate greed. Playful yet unsettling, these sculptures force us to confront the systems we buy into—literally.

With Good Buy! Cruel World, Leavitt invites audiences into a retail therapy session for our times: part toy store, part protest, part wake-up call. His work asks us to laugh, reflect, and recognize that satire—when wielded with glue, cardboard, and clay—can be one of the sharpest tools we have.

Learn more about the VCA exhibit here.

And come to his artist talk at VCA on November 9th at 2 pm.