“Bodypaint creates a special connection to a person that other visual art forms have trouble accomplishing; it’s a distinctly human experience.

My surface is living, breathing human beings making this a highly relevant & immediate medium. I use non-toxic hypoallergenic paint applied with a brush or airbrush. The painting is temporary, like a Tibetan sand painting, beginning to change into another work as soon as I stop painting, changing texture & color.

For this reason highly intentional photography has become an important part of documenting my work. I collaborate closely with photographers to make sure I share the same perspective eye as the technology.

Likewise, I work with my human canvases on poses, creating new opportunities for line & form. My work is sometimes experienced live as an installation, for example, at museums, or preserved through photographs as limited edition fine art prints.

I love the double-take people do as they look at my work. It’s this reaction that ignited my recent human motorcycle project to go internationally viral in the media.

I apprenticed under world renown bodypainter Craig Tracy at his gallery in New Orleans. I have a B.A. in film & worked in the art department in Hollywood on major films & tv shows before finding my current medium.”

Trina Merry: website

See another awesome project by Trina Merry – Human Motorcycles are hot