Trina Merry works in bodypaint. Her surface is living, breathing human beings. She uses non-toxic hypoallergenic paint applied with a brush or airbrush. The painting is temporary, like a Tibetan sand painting: it begins to change into another work as soon as she stops painting, changing texture and color. Thus Merry was inspired to choose the work of Andy Goldsworthy for her intervention: Goldsworthy’s process is also temporal in nature. Merry’s intervention will coincide with the installation of Goldsworthy’s Burnt Patch at the San Jose Museum of Art. On November 18, 2014, as the crew assembles Goldsworthy’s work in SJMA’s courtyard, Merry and her team, including fifteen models, will create a simultaneous installation in response to it. 

Merry collaborates closely with photographers and with her human canvases, creating new opportunities for line and form. Her work is sometimes experienced live as an installation, for example, at museums, or preserved through photographs as limited edition fine art prints. Merry apprenticed under world renowned bodypainter Craig Tracy at his gallery in New Orleans. She has a BA in film and worked in the art department major films and television shows before finding her current medium. Her awards include First Place- Installation Art Award, World Bodypaint Festival 2014; Addy’s- Several First Place Awards, “Human Motorcycle Project,” 2013; and Visual Artist of the Year, Raw San Jose 2012.