Blending into Spring Cherry Blossoms in NYC’s Central Park using Trina Merry’s viral camouflage bodypaint style.
Trina Merry | Body Paint Artist
“We are captivated by this artist who works with 'invisible models'. New York-based artist Trina Merry masterfully uses paint to turn her models into amazing human chameleons. Merry's artwork is so detailed you'll forget there is even a person in her photos at all... they look effortless.”
- Business Insider
MEET TRINA MERRY
“When Trina Merry paints, she considers color, shadow—and how long her canvas can stand without a bathroom break. That’s because she’s a world-champion body painter and people are a testy medium. She paints fast to meet the demands of the human circulation and muscular systems, with sessions lasting anywhere from 30 minutes to three hours (though more elaborate scenarios have taken 18). Merry’s auditions can attract as many as 600 models, and she holds regular training sessions to review poses and stretches. She doesn’t typically rely on backdrops and prefers to paint models outside in public, often camouflaging them into the setting by painting from a single perspective. Merry began figure painting on regular canvases before migrating to bodies in 2006. Her work has taken her to the pyramids in Egypt, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and Easter Island. The practice, she’s found, builds compassion and body acceptance.”
-American Way
It all started when NYC Bodypainter Trina Merry was struck by lightning in Hollywood, it altered the course of her life. Everything turned white and there was a loud buzzing sound as the lighting filled her car. The most incredible aching sensation shot through her bones. Suffering from continuous a painful ache in her bones whenever she was near power lines or any electrical wires, she escaped to the sheltering forest of Yosemite National Park hoping for reprieve. She spent a year painting by a little stream where she made friends with the local deer.
It was during this time that she had a few glasses of absinthe with Amanda Palmer (the Dresden Dolls, TED Talks). Palmer encouraged Trina to stand onstage and get body painted with the Dolls opening act- an Australian synesthesia art rock band called “The Red Paintings”. While wearing a silver mask that shot laser beams out into the audience, she experienced complete strangers painting her body with brightly colored space toys. Something sparked: Art had a heart beat. Art could be vulnerable. Art was… happening.
Trina Merry is a leading body painter in a generation that emerged in the wake of the influence of Yves Klein, Yayoi Kusama, and Verushka. Merry studied with Robert Wilson and Marina Abramovic as a Watermill Center summer resident, creating five living bodypaint installations on site. There she absorbed their unique attention to space, silence in stillness and transported these applications in her work to the chaotic neon streets of New York and subsequently, the world. She has also studied with Alex and Allyson Grey on “Visionary Art and the Light Body”. She has crafted her own visual and conceptual vocabulary that emerged through her focus on the points of juxtaposition between the organic human form and the phallic hard lines of architecture. Merry has performed and exhibited at The Whitney Biennial, Getty Villa, San Jose Museum of Art (with Andy Goldsworthy), Attleboro Arts Museum, ESMoA, Museo De Bardini (Florence), Edward Hopper House, Red Dot Miami, Superfine! Art Fair, Satellite Art Show, WORKS San Jose & SOMArts alongside the Guerilla Girls. Merry currently lives in New York City & Dallas & has a BFA in film.
TRINA MERRY PORTFOLIO
“Brooklyn-based artist Trina Merry utilizes an unconventional medium for her work: the human body. Combining intricate body painting with real-time photography, Merry produces surrealist pieces that seamlessly blend her subjects with their backgrounds, creating riveting works that leave you wondering where the body starts and the building ends.”
-Refinery 29
TRINA MERRY X JASON MRAZ X FORD
Jason Mraz was body painted by Trina Merry for Ford’s Go Green Campaign. The concept was inspired by Trina’s camouflage series.
“A campaign spotlighting Ford’s energy-efficient vehicles recruited singer-songwriter Jason Mraz, actress Felicia Day and health guru Rainbeau Mars. “Large companies like ours are much more comfortable being evolutionary rather than revolutionary,” says Toby Barlow, executive vice president and chief creative officer for Team Detroit, Ford’s ad agency. “We needed to reach a new audience—one that hadn’t connected with Ford, people who didn’t know we had a green and sustainable platform.”
-Entrepreneur
BODYPAINT ART
“Even if you're not the artsy type, you'll be wowed by these awesome images. Trina Merry, a body painter, blended naked people seamlessly into their surroundings. We, quite frankly, can't evoke how amazing it is more than the pictures themselves. This is as immersive as artwork gets, and the results are seriously stunning. Merry uses skin-safe paints to create landscapes with the human body, applying the color with a brush or airbrush to blend her subjects in with their background.”
-Cosmopolitan
“Mess with Your Mind”
Refinery 29
“Masterpieces”
Buzzfeed
“Transformative”
Time Magazine
“Neo-Contemporary”
Hyperallergic
“Stunning”
Vice
“Innovative”
Bustle
New York City’s streets are Trina Merry’s studio, and the naked body is her canvas. She creates remarkable images that seamlessly camouflage her mostly nude models into New York City’s skyline, blending them into the details of the Empire State Building, the Manhattan Bridge, Central Park and other famous landmarks. The art form, preserved in photographs, is the result of a meticulous process that relies on models who must hold their pose perfectly still for hours and of New York City’s relatively liberal laws that have no problem with a woman standing topless in the middle of a busy street.
“These motorbikes look like pretty racey, but not because they go very fast - they're actually made up from multiple naked athletic models. The dirt bike, cruiser and sports bike are the creations of body paint artist Trina Merry whose amazing work blurs the lines of reality.”
-Huffington Post
Bodypaint Human Motorcycles
The quadruple viral “Human Motorcycles” brings together Trina Merry’s painting style with the brand International Motorcycle Shows and the agency I.D.E.A to tell an unforgettable wow-factor imagery story about the history of motorcycles and strength of women in American society. Trina spent up to 18 hours creating each body painted human sculpture for this ad campaign, “ridden” by motor cross celeb Erin Bates, and this campaign was honored with the Addy’s “Best in Show” award.
