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She was struck by lightning while driving in Los Angeles. Merry herself was a model for body painting before she took her own to brush to others. Rose touches on MerryвЂ™s purpose as outlined in her artistвЂ™s statement. The work not only normalizes RoseвЂ™s body, it celebrates it by melding Rose into the Oculus, an already famous piece of art. вЂњIt's okay to have a body and no matter what it looks like, it's still beautiful,вЂќ she said of her experience working with Merry. Rose, who is a plus-sized model, described the work as a form of empowerment. Since 1992, itвЂ™s been legal for women to be topless in New York State wherever a man is allowed to be topless. that has been, вЂњtop tested,вЂќ according to, meaning itвЂ™s one of 14 cities that women have been topless in without persecution. New York City is one of 14 cities in the U.S. She thought it was an act of вЂњdesexualizing nudity.вЂќ She becomes the Oculus but is still embodied within herself. MerryвЂ™s work takes a topless Rose and paints her into the Oculus, the outline of her body just visible. The architect, Santiago Calatrava, intended the structure to look like, вЂњa bird being released from a childвЂ™s hand.вЂќ It invokes hope, redemption, and freedom. The Oculus-a bright, light-filled, architectural beauty-serves as a transportation hub located at Ground Zero, where the twin towers fell during 9/11. Recently, Merry merged Meara Rose, a body-positive influencer, into the landscape of The World Trade Center Oculus in New York City.

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MerryвЂ™s urban camouflage series paints over bodies so they merge with the surrounding landscape. Trina Merry, an artist known for her innovative work in contemporary fine art body painting, is taking on gender equality and body image in one of her recent works.

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Process: Gender Equality & the Top Free Act The result both touches the spirit and blows the mind. When looking at the Urban Camouflage series, sometimes the human body pops right out at you and other times you have to look closely to reveal the outline of the human form. Those viewing the art may have the same reaction. Many of my models tell me they feel empowered and emboldened after participating in one of my projects. When we are ready to reveal ourselves, we come back to life and that is a beautiful thing. Sometimes we just want to hide away from the world for a while, but there is beauty in that retreat. The techniques I use for each project are different, but the message is the same: Among all of us there is an innate need to be camouflaged. My models are undeterred by being under intense spotlight in public. As I paint and photograph, tourists are taking photos of me painting on some very private areas of the human body. People are often fascinated by watching me work. We are exposed not only through the nudeness of the human body, but also through the sheer nakedness of creating something from nothing.ДЄfter all, body paint dates back 250,000 years. There is a genuine intimacy as we work to create art out in the open in front of the world. Each camouflage session typically takes one to three hours. I paint what I see while constantly keeping an eye on the overall perspective. Eventually their figures blend right in to the background. I align models with the backgrounds and use hypoallergenicВ paint and a brush or airbrush to directly paint on their body. We pick out the pose I photograph it and figure out the optimal perspective. When starting a camouflage painting, the model and I visit the city and decide on a location. The way I see it, everything we cross paths with has its own rhythm, so I seize that spirit right at the very beginning of the process. Even though working with humans has its own demands because they sweat and have to take bathroom breaks, I embrace those challenges. From the first moment I worked with a live model, I was intrigued by a blank canvas that has a heartbeat. The real magic comes from the energy of working with a human model. In urban scenes where the view seems so cold and lifeless, I am able to juxtapose the hard lines of architecture against the softness of human curves to create images that are thought-provoking, provocative and well, magical. If camouflage is defined as вЂњhiding or disguising the presence of a person, animal, or object,вЂќ then my art may be described as camouflage 2.0, - the вЂњability to bring awareness to elements of life that have previously been camouflaged.вЂќДЄs a multimedia artist, I use human models and body paint to breathe life into landscapes.

Urban camo