--- title: Kellyanne Conway Couch: Meet the Meme-Maker description: When Kellyanne Conway casually kneeled on an Oval Office couch, it set off an army of meme-makers. Here's the story behind one image. canonical: https://time.com/4688147/kellyanne-conway-couch-meme/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-02T06:38:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:04:18.229Z article:section: Politics og:title: Meet the Meme-Maker Who's Kellyanne Conway's Worst Nightmare og:description: He's memed her three times in the last two months. og:url: https://time.com/4688147/kellyanne-conway-couch-meme/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt17e0c84c998ee389/6988bc6f0a4a22ced59cd1bf/kellyann-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4500 og:image:height: 2531 og:image:alt: TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-TRUMP og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Meet the Meme-Maker Who's Kellyanne Conway's Worst Nightmare twitter:description: He's memed her three times in the last two months. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt17e0c84c998ee389/6988bc6f0a4a22ced59cd1bf/kellyann-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Meet the Meme-Maker Who's Kellyanne Conway's Worst Nightmare > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Mar 2, 2017 6:38 AM UTC  Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway checks her phone after taking a photo as President Donald Trump and leaders of historically black universities and colleges pose for a group photo in the Oval Office of the White House before a meeting with Vice President Mike Pence on Feb. 27, 2017 in Washington, DC. Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway checks her phone after taking a photo as President Donald Trump and leaders of historically black universities and colleges pose for a group photo in the Oval Office of the White House before a meeting with Vice President Mike Pence on Feb. 27, 2017 in Washington, DC. Brendan Smialowski—AFP/Getty Images by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Mar 2, 2017 6:38 AM UTC The first thing Tim O’Brien did after seeing the photo of [Kellyanne Conway on the couch](http://motto.time.com/4685570/kellyanne-conway-oval-office-photo/) was search the internet to see if anyone else had the same thought he had. They hadn’t, so O’Brien fired up his Mac and in about 10 minutes Photoshopped Conway’s casual kneeling on an Oval Office couch into the [famous Andrew Wyeth painting “Christina’s World.”](https://www.moma.org/collection/works/78455) The hardest part was painting over the dress to make it a lighter shade of pink. “It’s not complicated,” he said. “It’s really having a good idea that’s the magic of it.” He posted the image on his Facebook, [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/obrienillustration/) and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/TonkaOBrien) pages Tuesday afternoon and then went about his day. Within a few hours, it had been shared a thousand times on Facebook, picked up a few hundred likes on Instagram and, stripped of his name, circulated on [tweets with thousands of likes and retweets](https://twitter.com/yashar/status/836975202085003264). In short, it had become a meme. > [](https://twitter.com/yashar/status/836975202085003264) For O’Brien, a freelance illustrator whose work has [graced the covers of TIME](http://time.com/4672686/time-cover-trump-chaos/) and other publications, the image was a professional calling card — a way to remind editors that he does good work between assignments — and also a chance to express his progressive political views. It was the third time he’d memed Conway, Trump’s former campaign manager and now a White House advisor. When she appeared at Trump’s inauguration [wearing a Revolutionary War-inspired outfit](http://time.com/4640712/kellyanne-conway-trump-revolutionary-wear/), he mimicked an old Simplicity sewing pattern in such a convincing illustration that [many people believed it was real](http://www.snopes.com/kellyanne-conway-simplicity-pattern/). And when she defended the White House’s used of [“alternative facts,”](http://time.com/4642689/kellyanne-conway-sean-spicer-donald-trump-alternative-facts/) he [drew up the cover](http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article128160654.html) of a [“Little Golden Book of Alternate Facts”](http://www.writersresist.com/2017/01/26/alternative-facts-by-tim-obrien/) that went viral. The Brooklyn resident said he has nothing against Conway. He salutes her for running a winning presidential campaign and shut down Instagram commenters who went after her looks. But he said she’s perfect for memes. “Trump’s too easy,” he said. “But Kellyanne, her alternate facts statement seemed to be a terrifying thing to say through a smile. I think it will end up being the catchphrase of the year.” O’Brien is part of a vast army of illustrators, both professional and amateur, who use Photoshop and social media to put their spin on the news of the day. Conway’s couch moment alone [produced a flurry of memes](http://time.com/4686021/kellyanne-conway-kneeling-oval-office-photoshopped/), which have become the 21st Century take on political cartoons. For O’Brien, the key to understanding this new ecosystem is watching his 17-year-old son scroll through BuzzFeed and other sites on his phone. “There’s a million Photoshops going on every five minutes,” he said. “A lot of them are not very good, either technically or thinking-wise. But when the thinking is right and the rendering is done just good enough that everyone can understand right away what’s funny or hilarious or frustrating about an image, they can quickly share it without having to write an essay and feel like part of the conversation.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4688147/kellyanne-conway-couch-meme/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4688147/kellyanne-conway-couch-meme/"},"headline":"Meet the Meme-Maker Who's Kellyanne Conway's Worst Nightmare","datePublished":"2017-03-02T06:38:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:04:18.229Z","description":"When Kellyanne Conway casually kneeled on an Oval Office couch, it set off an army of meme-makers. 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