In Melissa Vertosick's art, the way she constructs everyday objects gives the familiar shapes broader meaning.
Teapots and glasses are flat cutouts made of homemade paper. A pair of latex gloves is embroidered in a floral pattern with human hair. Skillets hanging from hooks are made of glycerin, with tiny faceless plastic figures embedded in them.
"I am looking at the domestic space and questioning the given role I should have as a woman in those spaces," said Vertosick, a graduate student in fine arts at Pennsylvania State University.
Among her questions, she said, is whether she, as a woman, enjoys traditional activities such as baking and sewing because it is part of her personality or because she was brought up to think she should.
An exhibit, called Spaces: Identity, is on display at Howard Community College's art gallery through Oct. 9.
Elizabeth Burger, a Westminster sculptor and adjunct professor at HCC, encouraged Vertosick to apply for a show at the college. "I think the show is really strong," Burger said. "She has real strong concepts, and the craftsmanship in it is really excellent."
In six installations, Vertosick explores a variety of issues. A table and chairs are set up in front of shelves holding paper dishware to explore the pressure women feel to make a home look perfect. It shows "the fakeness of it," Vertosick said. "Nothing is functional, everything is for show."
But a pile of the artist's hair on the white tablecloth intrudes on that perfection.
A sculpture made of 10 boxes with cloth sides - lighted from within and hanging from the ceiling - also brings domestic spaces to the forefront. Photographs of Vertosick doing household chores are printed on transparencies through which the light shines, and doll furniture inside the boxes casts shadows of familiar household shapes.
The glycerin skillets are intended to evoke the way people are served "without thinking about who is serving them," Vertosick said. That includes restaurant workers and mothers who are expected to have dinner on the table each night.
Other pieces focus on clothing and fashion. The embroidered gloves and a latex apron sewn with hair play with ideas of traditional women's garments. In a corner, just the front of shirts and dresses hang on hooks. Each has strings attached so visitors can try them on over their clothes, again emphasizing falseness.
Vertosick said people put on personas every day when they decide what to wear. "The clothing isn't really who we are," she said.
The art is "really talking about [Vertosick's] life, her experiences," Burger said. "It refers to ... traditional things women have done for so long, honoring that as an important activity."
"This is a different kind of exhibit than [visitors] might have seen before," said Jim Adkins, director of visual arts for HCC. "I hope people will take the time to experience it for a while."
Installations such as Vertosick's are more than aesthetic objects, he said. People need to spend time in the space and think about the artist's choices and their reactions.
Vertosick, who is from western Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh, earned her bachelor's degree in fine arts from West Virginia University before attending Penn State, from which she will graduate in May.
In high school, she built sets for theater productions, and finds those skills handy as she creates three-dimensional objects. She also works with light sources, drawing in part on experience working with her father, an electrician.
She decided to focus on sculpture because it challenged her the most, she said.
With the support of her school to pursue art full time, she said, she enjoys freedom of expression. "It is nice not having any boundaries," she said.
The HCC art gallery is in the Administration Building's main corridor, adjacent to Smith Theatre, at 10901 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia. It is free and open to the public from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Information: 410-772-4512. A sample of the exhibit can be viewed at www.howardcc. edu/arts_and_humanities/artgallery.htm.
