I Painted Donald Trump And Vladimir Putin On Real Cockroaches

by Patrick Penrose Published Nov 12, 2025

I chose to make these portraits because I think that cockroaches and these characters are very similar in many ways. Cockroaches relate to all the negative and repulsive to me and these famous people have done things that should not exist in our world as genocide, wars, violence, discrimination, racism, abuse of authority, and many despicable things that everyone should condemn in general.

It is a protest that I, as an artist and as a human do, and my goal is to make others aware that this is not allowed anymore.

I use oil paint and also used a small brush to make these miniature paintings.

The process of the oil paintings is very complicated because first I have to catch them alive or occasions already dead, once dead I open the belly and clean inside to prevent decomposition, I leave for several hours with formaldehyde and they are ready to become a unique artwork.

Painting on cockroaches is not easy, the back of cockroaches is very smooth, and sometimes paint does not adhere and slides away. Also, the tiny paintings are so small that it’s very hard to achieve the similarity of each character.

I made six portraits that are: Adolf Hitler, Donald Trump, Fidel Castro, Nicolas Maduro, Kim Jong-un, and Vladimir Putin, but hopefully, later continue completing the collection because I think missing more painting ideas on the list.

These characters were the drawing ideas because they have much in common between them and have a very negative popularity

More info: Www.cristiamramosart.com