In lab, Anna Melnichuk is a 29-year-old graduate student working toward a master’s degree both in physical chemistry and electrical engineering. On the social networking and shopping website, Etsy, she is Silvertree999, armed with handmade jewelry and nature photographs taken with her mother’s 35mm Minolta, a retro film camera.
These personas are seemingly unrelated, but Melnichuk disagrees.
“Science and art really go hand in hand,” she said. “You have to be a creative person to do well in science.”
Melnichuk, who spent her teenage years in Brooklyn, N.Y., painted throughout high school. She was accepted to the School of Visual Arts, Savannah College of Art and Design and other well-known art schools, as well as waitlisted at Carnegie Mellon for physics.
She kept her name on the waitlist thinking she wouldn’t get in.
“I wouldn’t have to make a decision, upset parents, et cetera,” she said, “and then I got in, and there was nothing I could say after that.”
Thus, her 11 years and counting of schooling began. Melnichuk attended the University of Hawaii after graduating from Carnegie Mellon with a Bachelor of Arts in chemistry. She received her master’s in chemistry at Hawaii and came to UF in 2006.
In Gainesville she’s developed a creative outlet taking photographs of flowers and sunsets at Paynes Prairie. Jewelry making started for Melnichuk as an accident after her bracelet broke.
At the bead store she had a thought; “Oh, there’s a lot of stuff here, this is kind of fun.” So, she started buying, making things and taking classes.
To Melnichuk, her art is a stress relief from her work with UF’s Quantum Theory Project. Because of this, jewelry making and photography indirectly supplement her work in the same way that a hot shower or a few hours at the gym seem to generate the best ideas.
“If you think of something else, if you read a book that’s not related to your work at all, at some point, just doing that clears your mind,” she said.
She put her work on Etsy in February and has had one sale so far from a very supportive aunt.
“Someone ordered this pendant, this pricey piece, and I didn’t think it would be the first thing to sell,” she said, laughing.
Melnichuk hopes to sell most of her jewelry stock by the time she leaves Gainesville next year. Even with her stack of chemistry degrees, she acknowledges art as an important part of her life.
“I always tell my students not to think of science as this dry thing,” she said. “If you’re going to be good, you have to be creative. Otherwise, you really are a drone.”
To Kathryn Wilson, The Gator Nation knows no bounds.
Wilson uses Etsy to display and sell her products online, her shop is called GatorMade.
Her creations embody a home football game — bags, flip-flops and jewelry all orange and blue — and also bring The Swamp spirit abroad in the form of pillows, scarves and signs.
“It’s amazing,” Wilson, a 1971 graduate of UF, said. “I didn’t even realize how global it could be until I put this stuff on Etsy.”
Wilson’s creativity and love for the Gators became intertwined when she came to UF on a fine arts scholarship. In her time, she attended countless home football and basketball games, she said, and eventually graduated with a degree in interior design.
After years of being an interior designer, and later a financial assistant, Wilson decided it was time to turn back to the things she loved most — crafting and UF.
“I love being creative, and I’m a lifelong Gator,” she said. “It just kicked me right in the pants that I need to start doing stuff I enjoy.”
After making enough products to expand, Wilson asked her son to make a website. Instead, he introduced her to Etsy.
He told her it was easy to set up and use Wilson said.
He was right, and she has been using it to spread orange and blue all over the world.
“I’ve sent things to Kentucky, to California, to Japan,” Wilson said.
One of her products, a sign that says how many miles a particular place is from The Swamp, made it more than 7,000 miles to Germany.
“Social media is a wonderful thing when you can just talk to someone in Germany, and it’s not going to cost you anything,” Wilson said.
If Mabelin Castellanos was to read her name on a page, certain letters would pop from the black and white of ink and paper. She would see the a’s in red, the e’s in green, the i’s in yellow and the o’s in white.
Castellanos has grapheme-color synesthesia. The part of her brain that processes words and numbers overlaps with the part of the brain that sees colors.
The condition is common among artists, Castellanos said, which would explain the large collection of mixed media art and household knickknacks in her Etsy collection, TelArtes.
“It’s a need I have,” she said. “It balances my mind.”
Castellanos is a scientist. After emigrating from Cuba in 1994, Castellanos came to work for UF’s department of physiological sciences at a time when the university was the only school in Florida with a medical college.
Castellanos believes art and science balance each other.
Much of her work is quilt art. She creates a graphic tablet on the computer to print onto fabric, then sews on top of it with different colors and patterns. The scenes are inspired by everyday life.
“That’s just what I love, people and ambiance,” she said.
For a while, Castellanos was part of the Artisans’ Guild Gallery, a co-op for Gainesville artists, she also put up tables and stands at art shows and farmers markets all around Florida. Those became too time-consuming, so she joined Etsy in February.
Since then, she’s sold two key chains and a quilt art piece.
“The money is not really an issue,” she said, “but you like to show what you do in a way.”
She also enjoys browsing.
“Etsy’s great because you can see what other artists are doing,” she said. “It’s even better as a buyer.”
With her synesthesia and science-heavy job, Castellanos doesn’t see art creation as a choice, but as a necessity. However, it is a welcome necessity.
“I have a need to see color and put it together,” she said. “I really enjoy doing it.”
