Try To Find The Model In These Camouflage Images

How does art engage an audience? Usually, there’s some kid of challenge involved. The artist steps up with a statement that their viewers will either agree or disagree with. That sparks a reaction. The viewer gets thinking about what’s going on, what they’re looking at, and how they feel. But there has to be some kind of hook to get to that point.

Remember those computer generated magic eye posters? You’d walk past them in the mall and try to un-focus or re-focus your eyes to see the image hidden within the seemingly random pixels. Good hook, right? It was hard to resist looking for those images. Well, some artists out there have seemingly learned how to hook us just as well. And they’re much, much better than those magic eye posters.

Trina Merry is a New York-based artist with a special talent. You’ve probably never seen work like hers – or maybe you have and you just didn’t know it.

Her work is in museums, and she has done some commercial work, but her specialty is painting people so that they blend into the landscape.

“Painting on the body creates a special connection to a person that other visual art forms have trouble accomplishing,” she says. “It’s a distinctly human experience.” 

In her camouflage series, she puts her models against familiar backdrops, like famous landmarks.

After she applies her paint, her models disappear against the landmarks.