Christian Marcelletta sang at the 2019 Minot Relay for Life.

Christian Marcelletta with the Misfits of Minot is more than just an actress on stage. She also has her own nail salon, she’s part of a pinup community, does photography for fun, sings and models.

Marcelletta is originally from Georgia, then she moved to California where she spent about half of her life. Her husband’s job with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad brought her to Minot about five years ago. The summer months and the people here are her favorite things, but the winters are “brutal.”

In high school, she was in theater and her first role was playing Rosalind in a performance called “While Shakespeare Slept” from the William Shakespeare play “As You Like It.”

Music was also an important part of her high school years, too. She played the flute in band and sang soprano in choir.

Marcelletta and Tiffany Kerfoot, the current vice president of the Misfits of Minot, went to hair school together. Kerfoot was a member and performer, and invited her to see a Rocky Horror Picture Show performance. Marcelletta said that after that first show, she wanted to join because “it just looked like so much fun!” She joined three years ago and became the president of the non-profit organization last November.

She doesn’t let the other members have all the fun. She still takes on roles in the shows, like her part as Ruth Bridgers in “House on Haunted Hill.” Before some of the other performances begin, she gets on stage and sings a song or two to get the audience warmed up and does one of the other things that makes her feel most like herself.

When she isn’t performing, she’s dressing up and doing nails. “A lot of the things that I really enjoy doing are connected,” she explained. Her love for dressing in vintage clothing and being part of a pinup community came from the time she spent making her own nail polish.

Considered an independent retail seller, her first event was at a pinup trade show in Long Beach, Calif., where she was going to sell her homemade nail polish. She saw several people dressed in pinup clothing and she discovered that many more people dressed the same way. “I met up with Angie (Griffin) and made the group,” Marcelletta said. There are now about 20 local ladies and some others from areas surrounding Minot.

Their local pinup group’s name is the “Prairie Pinups.” They are like-minded women that get together a few times a year and go to events with a 1950s theme or feel in their vintage clothing. Two of the main ones that they attend are the Pioneer Village summer picnic and the Pinups at the Zoo event. Marcelletta even said that they dress up and go eat at Kroll’s Diner.

Doing nails is an art she has been perfecting for 12 years. She does a lot of different things with nails, like doing acrylics and painting them, or just painting her clients’ nails if they don’t want acrylics. She loves colors and glitter, and the ability to combine them to make art. “The possibilities are endless and they’re not limited by anything,” Marcelletta said. She almost always uses custom colors, mixing polishes together. “It’s hardly ever that I use polish straight from the bottle.”

In her free time, she does a lot of detailed and intricate patterns. Her clientele mainly wants work-friendly stuff, so she does some without patterns at all.

When it comes to her photography, she likes to take pictures of landscapes with natural lighting, especially at “the golden hour” at sunset. The glow from the setting sun gives the landscape or the subject “that perfect golden light.”

High school was where she developed an interest in photography. She bought disposable cameras and took several photos of things that she thought were beautiful. Not too long ago, she found out that her sister does photography, as well. “There must be something in the family that gives us the creative eye,” Marcelletta said.

She put a lot of emphasis on her need for her artistic practices and hobbies. “I have to be doing something creative at all times. It feels like me.” When she was a child, she would sing and record her pieces. Being center stage with all eyes on her is what she was born to do.

Marcelletta said that she shows her three children that it’s okay to be creative. Her daughter likes to make videos on the app called TikTok. Her two sons both play the guitar as a hobby, one playing trumpet in school and the other playing the piano. They are working on learning some songs for their mother to accompany her at a Misfits of Minot variety show.

To keep her company during the COVID-19 pandemic, she also has her five pets. Sunny the schnoodle, Rose the springer spaniel and Lily the border collie warm her lap and give her a good laugh, as most pups do. Because she lives outside of city limits, she was able to bring home her bunny named Jesus. She thought the name was fitting because he was born on Easter Monday. Her leopard gecko, Cheetoh, spends most of his time hiding. Leopard geckos are nocturnal reptiles, so they are much more active at night.

Her passion for art is one of the things that keeps her going every day, filling the community and the world with more beauty than it had before.