Courses & Mentorships Now Enrolling
Instructors: Raymond Bonilla, Cassandra Kim, & John English
Program
Mentorship
All Skill Levels
Networking opportunities, finding gallery representation, and learning how to sell your art is the backbone of this course.
Length: 3 courses, 10 weeks each
Instructors: Ray Bonilla, Cassandra Kim, & John English
Gallery Arts
Mentorship
Beginner
Equip yourself with tools and skills to build a career and thrive as a working fine artist.
Length: 10 Weeks
Instructors: Ray Bonilla, Cassandra Kim, & John English
Gallery Arts
Mentorship
Intermediate/advanced
Networking opportunities, finding gallery representation, and learning how to sell your art is the backbone of this course.
Length: 10 Weeks
Instructors: Adam Gustavson, Ashly Lovett, John English, Dale Stephanos, and more.
Program
Mentorship
All Skill Levels
Networking opportunities, finding gallery representation, and learning how to sell your art is the backbone of this course.
Length: 3 courses, 10 weeks each
Instructor: Adam Gustavson
Illustration
Mentorship
Beginner
Establish fundamental skills for advanced drawing and painting techniques for various visual arts industries.
Length: 10 weeks
Instructor: John English
Illustration
Workshop
All Skill Levels
Learn and master the steps to drawing the human form with confidence, skill, & expression
Length: 3 Weeks
Instructor: Ashly Lovett
Illustration
Mentorship
intermediate
Develop a process for creating compelling and engaging original stories, a critical component of visual narrative.
Length: 10 Weeks
Instructors: Dale Stephanos & John English
Illustration
Workshop
Advanced
Build your portfolio, identify your dream illustration clients, and pursue a career doing what you love.
Length: 10 Weeks
Instructor: Edward Kinsella
Illustration
Workshop
All Skill Levels
Design & illustrate impactful cover art for films, posters, books, and albums
Length: 5 weeks
By Zillah Smith — Friday March 14, 2025 — Blog
In the late 1940s, Eastern Bloc countries, including the Soviet Union and East Germany, had a problem. We will be limiting ourselves to one problem experienced in these regions, which was solved with art.
An American agricultural pest, the Colorado Potato Beetle, was eating its way across the continent, compounding problems within an already strained food supply.
Dr. C. V. Riley’s illustration of the Colorado Potato Beetle, courtesy of Special Collections and Kansas State University. 1870s.
This cute little bug lived in relative anonymity in the Rocky Mountains, eating native tubers and being eaten by native predators. As agricultural cultivation of potatoes and other crops spread from the east to the west across the plains in the 1800s, this insect found its true calling: eating so many potatoes. And eat it did, spreading from west to east, leaving whole fields of devastated crops in its wake.
American entomologist and artist C. Valentine Riley was the first to identify and sound the alarm about the bug in 1874.
Illustration of Dr. Riley by an unknown artist.
C. V. Riley, Colorado Potato Bug Illustrations for Popular Science Monthly 1875
As early as the 1870s, outbreaks of the potato beetle had spread to England and Germany but were kept largely under control until World Wars I and II.
In the late 1940s, these countries found themselves with a major beetle problem. This precious little yellow bug was happily eating away on both large industrial farms and small family plots. Left untreated this insect presented a genuine threat of famine to a society still reeling from two devastating wars.
But how to communicate the urgency of the problem to the citizens of these countries?
Blame it on the Americans.
There were newspaper articles, poetry, newsfeels, and educational campaigns urging citizens to “save the potato.”
And, of course, posters!
Posters are a fast and impactful way to share information. Reading a newspaper article or poem requires a certain amount of time and literacy, but a good poster can be seen and understood in seconds. This was the tail end of the golden age of illustration. Mass production was able to distribute art via printing to more people than ever, but photography still couldn’t be as clearly or cheaply reproduced as a drawing or painting.
And, man, these posters look so good. Just such good illustrations. I honestly love them so much.
Even without speaking the language – you can get a pretty solid sense of what these are all about.
I love the nod to insect pinning in this one (both bug and bomber are pinned to entomological standards!)
In addition to being prolific breeders and eaters – the potato bug is weirdly resistant to pesticides. Small family plots didn’t really have access to pesticides anyway, so the best way to stop the bug is to catch them by hand and drown them in kerosene.
I particularly love the happy little sun shining on this family working in their field together.
They were pretty explicit in blaming American imperialism for the appearance of the beetles – although its pretty unclear if the CIA was actually dropping beetles out of airplanes over the USSR. After all, we had and still have our own problems with the beetles here in the states. Regardless, blaming America was very effective propaganda and probably went a long way to getting the message across.
Eradication and quarantine were fairly effective until the late 1950s. Potatoes remain heavily regulated, inspected, and quarantined in the EU, UK and Norway. It’s unclear if Russia is still dealing with the infestation – but Finland occasionally suffers from infestations, allegedly when strong winds blow from Russia.
If you’re interested in learning more about this insect, its ecology, and whether or not the CIA was involved with its spread across the eastern bloc, you can check out this episode of a Podcast I co-host, There Will Be Bugs.
A reminder to close:
About the Author
Zillah Smith is an illustrator and tattoo artist living in Lexington, KY. They love motorcycles, cats, drawing, and infodumping about science, history, and the natural world. They are a current student at Visual Arts Passage, although their true calling in life is eating so many potatoes. Zillah also co-hosts the podcast, There Will Be Bugs.
Join Our Newsletter
Join 70,000+ readers who catch up on art events, techniques, history, and more every month.
Blog Newsletter Signup
Keep Reading
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!