On Photoshop Fun

My roommate designs book covers for his father as a part time job and it has really made him a pro in Photoshop. He has made some pretty awesome facebook profiles with this talent such as him shaking hands with President Nixon or hugging a giant wombat. And with what little I've done today on Photoshop, I've become very interested in Photoshop as an art form. I'm neither a good graphic designer nor a good photographer, but I suspect that if one were to acquire both set of skills he/she could do phenomenal things. I'm sure there are many artists out there who already do this but there is no one that I know of that is a famous "Photoshop" artist. I feel that those who are good at it not only have a small audience to view their work but they are also poorly paid. From my limited experience, it sounds like graphic design as an art is a fairly small field as those concerned with graphic design are more interested in completing projects that they are being paid to do rather than making artistic statements with their creative work.