Converse CowboY

$2,500
oil on canvas, 40“ x 30”

A person wearing a cowboy hat, white shirt, and jeans, appears to be riding a large, painted, brown dog with exaggerated features and an open mouth, against a backdrop of a blue star on a gray wall.

Converse Cowboy can currently be found at Vintage Bookstore in Austin, TX.

A painting of a man in jeans, a white polo, cowboy hat, and Converse Chuck Taylors riding a bucking bull with a blue star behind them, on a plain wall.
MegPhippin_ConverseCowboy_InSitu1.jpg
Large oil painting of a man in jeans, a white polo, cowboy hat, and Converse Chuck Taylors riding a bucking bull, all against a stylized blue star background.

About the painting

Converse Cowboy explores the evolving mythology of the American West through a contemporary lens. Inspired by a real photograph of the artist’s Uncle John riding a bull in his Converse Chuck Taylors, this painting captures a collision between traditional rodeo imagery and familiar symbols in American pop culture. Dressed in classic Levi's denim, a golf polo, and sneakers, the rider becomes a modern cowboy—one foot planted in the mythology of the West and the other in the everyday iconography of contemporary America.

At the center of the composition lies a tension between the two figures. The bull, massive and unbothered, embodies the enduring force of the American West—wild, indifferent, and larger than life. In contrast, the rider appears taut with regret and vulnerability, perhaps realizing his mistake in trying to “tame the beast.” Together they represent a broader cultural tension: a modern America reaching back toward a harsh history, attempting to reclaim a sense of wildness, grit, independence, and identity. The brand on the bull’s hindquarters is meant to evoke a strange familiarity with viewers, as it intentionally resembles the Venus symbol.

Black and white photograph of a cowboy riding a bucking horse inside a corral with wooden fences. The cowboy is wearing a hat and western attire, and has writing on the bottom right corner of the photograph.

The original photo that inspired the painting.