Brushing Up

By Sarah Pfledderer

Acclaimed San Diego body painter Lana Chromium isn’t just another pretty face... nor does she create them.

Chromium is among a dozen contestants appearing on Skin Wars Season Two, a Game Show Network (GSN) reality TV competition aimed at finding America’s best body painter. The show, which premiered June 10, features host Rebecca Romijn and celebrity judge RuPaul.

Having painted for most of her life, Chromium changed her medium in 2010, four years after relocating to San Diego from Russia. She had been getting restless in graphic design and decided to dust off her airbrush from college.

“I was ready to try something new and fresh,” she says. “I saw body painting not like face painting or fast work for money. I saw the highest form of this fine art, painting with details and meaning like you would on a canvas.”

Fast-forward five years, and now Chromium’s vying for a $100,000 cash prize, an all-expense-paid trip for two to the World Body Painting Festival in Australia and a custom brush collection.

“Body painting is a limitless art form,” she says. “It has so many styles and interpretations. I love them all.”

Chromium is currently in the midst of making a short film about body painting with her fiancé, who’s also a body painter (she says they don’t practice on each other), and appears to be painting a bright future for herself.

Skin Wars Season Two
Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on GSN
gsntv.com