Every American president is hanging on one wall in Midtown Detroit. Damon DeWitt started painting them in 2008, when he was 25, living in Miami during the Obama campaign, working two jobs and trying to decide whether he was actually going to be an artist. He'd painted about six pictures in his life. So he made himself a deal: paint every American president, and if he still wanted to make art at the end of it, keep going. Forty-five portraits later — each one in a different style, with James Buchanan hung deliberately upside down — "Dads of Democracy" is at Wayne State University's Hilberry Gateway Gallery.

DeWitt joins Robyn Vincent to talk about the presidency, American power, and the connection between art and politics.

Editor's note: The collection is on loan to Wayne State from Mary Zatina and Kevin Prihod. Mary Zatina is WDET's general manager.