(Credit: Huy Lam)

If there’s one word that President Obama certainly doesn’t want associated with his performance thus far it’s “hoped.”

But that’s just the word that Toronto-based artist Huy Lam chose as the basis for his portrait of Obama composed of the same word written over and over again.

"The word 'hoped' is used to create this image and express the disappointment felt by many Americans," Lam wrote on his website.

“It's a play on Shepard Fairey's iconic HOPE poster of President Obama during the 2008 campaign,” Lam told POLITICO. The piece, created using Photoshop, took him about 12 hours to complete.

"I am fascinated by politics and I vote but I am a cynic and extremely sarcastic," Lam said. "I think all politicians are the same, even the ones here in Canada. The difference is, in Canada the politicians and the politics are so boring, the people are apathetic. Americans have passion, I admire that."

Proving himself a bipartisan cynic, Lam did a portrait of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin based on the words "hope not."

The 40-year-old artist has done text-based portraits of other notables including Van Gogh (his text: “genius”), Bob Marley (“one love”) and Nelson Mandela (“my hero”).