Fans are used to the UNC women’s basketball team’s artistry on the court. As it turns out, that artistry extends off it, too. Four members of the team participated in an annual Paint-A-Thon last month, in which amateur artists from around the community paint used furniture for auction. All proceeds from the auction — scheduled for August — benefit Independent Animal Rescue.
The Paint-A-Thon is run by local artist Emily Weinstein. Her husband, Marc Alperin, is a professor of earth, marine and environmental sciences at UNC. Carolina rising senior forward Ali Zelaya was a student in Alperin’s course, and one day a project brought the class to Weinstein and Alperin’s house. The rest, Zelaya told Chapelboro, was history.
“It was all about climate change, and I got to make this big poster,” Zelaya said. “I had a bunch of earths doing yoga poses, and we put it up on Franklin Street for Earth Day. After that, we just connected. And here I am years later, doing the same thing. I’ve actually started my own brand with art.”
That brand has helped Zelaya capitalize on her work through NIL. And the environmental science major and marine science minor had distinctive nautical themes in the works she showed at the most recent Paint-a-Thon.
“I’m commissioning pieces, selling them,” she said. “This is something I’m super passionate about. It brings my two worlds together: art and making the world a better place in any way that I can.”
It’s hard to miss the 6-foot-4 Zelaya, and her work immediately caught Weinstein’s eye. And as Weinstein told Chapelboro, Zelaya set herself to another task: recruiting more of her peers to help paint.
“I noticed that she was quite the leader, and [she] turned to me and said, ‘When you do this again, call me,’” Weinstein said. “I said, ‘Sure.’ So a few months later when I did a Paint-a-Thon for Animal Rescue, she blew it out of the water and brought teammates with her.”
In a program making a name for itself in recruiting, Zelaya had struck gold. Alyssa Ustby, Kayla McPherson and Ariel Young joined the rising senior at Weinstein’s house and have created several colorful pieces.
“They are my biggest hype women,” Zelaya said of that trio. “I’m really close with [them], those are probably the people I’m closest with on the team. I was like, ‘Hey, would you guys like to join me?’ Because I did this by myself last year. And they were like, ‘We are not artists.’ I was like, ‘Guys, you can paint it one color and put triangles on it, and it’s a masterpiece.’”
“Ali always does exciting things, and I’ve seen her do art,” said Young. “I wanted to be involved with what she’s passionate about, which is painting. We call her ‘Earth Girl,’ because she cares about the environment and animals, so I just wanted to support her in this.”
Now, Zelaya and Young are hopeful they can recruit more teammates out to future Paint-a-Thons, and maybe even their head coach. Zelaya said Courtney Banghart has been fully behind her burgeoning art career. And she’s putting her money where her mouth is, too.
“She’s so supportive. She actually just reposted my art page on Instagram,” Zelaya said. “She actually is commissioning a piece as well, for her house. She’s super supportive of my art journey, so we might be able to get her out here, I don’t know. We might have to make it a team bonding thing.”
The painting Banghart is commissioning from Zelaya? It is, of course, a pair of Jordans.
Check out the players’ work in the slideshow below!
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