Invisible woman: Artist whose impressive body art makes her models disappear into New York city�s surroundings

Her models meld into the grey Manhattan skyline as if they're made of mirrors and glass.

Now body artist Trina Merry has spoken about her head-turning technique, painstakingly painting women so they blend in with New York's landmarks, after her incredible creations made headlines around the world.

The 33-year-old shuns studios and canvases, instead letting her nude models camouflage seamlessly into the world around them.

They have been photographed in front of the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, Central Park, the Guggenheim Museum and the iconic towers of downtown Manhattan.

It's not an easy process - the models must be painted live on the streets in a process that takes several hours and can attract some unwanted attention.

But the law is firmly on her side, as the city of New York allows people to strip off in public for the purposes of artistic expression - even if that doesn't stop police approaching the artist altogether.

Ms Merry came up with the idea after moving to New York from the San Francisco area earlier this year.

'I wanted to engage the city and understand it and make some observations,' she said.

'So instead of a person right in front of the Empire State building or the Statue of Liberty, they're softly in the background, and you've got more of a reflective view of the person within the landscape.'

Photographers followed the artist as she went through the process of creating her images in the middle of a busy Brooklyn street last week.

It is a carefully-planned ritual, which involves waiting until there is no chance of rain which could wash off the meticulously detailed designs.

And at one point, Ms Merry had to repaint some of her model after the owner of a van in the background got into it and drove away.

That's not to mention the stream of pedestrians and cab drivers who slowed down to gawk, snap pictures and ask questions - their faces a mix of shock, intrigue and anything-goes resignation.

'It feels great to be painted,' said model Jessica Mellow, who wore only a bikini bottom and running shoes.

'You feel the transformation process. The brush itself, it's really soft. It feels more like a massage.'

Passer-by Celeste Hernandez said: 'That's so very New York. You cannot be surprised by anything.'

New York's laws allow public nudity when it is in the context of performances or artistic expression, and women are allowed to be topless, two traditions established through a string of hard-fought cases.

In 1986 seven women from Rochester, New York, protested laws which allowed men to go topless but not women by holding a bare-breasted picnic in a park.

The publicity around the stunt - and their hard-fought campaign afterwards - led eventually to a ruling in 1992 by the state's highest court, the New York Court of Appeals.

One of the justices wrote: 'One of the most important purposes to be served by the equal protection clause is to ensure that "public sensibilities" grounded in prejudice and unexamined stereotypes do not become enshrined as part of the official policy of government.'

Music : Whiskey on the Mississippi by Kevin MacLeod
Source : DailyMail
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