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ORANGE COAST COLLEGE

Professor Creates Artful Illusions

Having dyslexia is not always a disadvantage for Karen Mortillaro. In fact, the Orange Coast College professor of fine arts said it has made creating her latest sculptures a little easier.

Mortillaro’s work, called “anamorphic” sculpting, involves making distorted sculptures that, when reflected in convex and cylindrical mirrors, create optical illusions.

“I make something that is unrecognizable appear in different ways,” she said of her sculptures. “It is a little mystical--kind of like Alice going through the mirror.”

Whereas other artists would have to use mirrors to make the work, Mortillaro’s dyslexia allows her to work without that type of assistance because she already sees many things backward, she said.

Mortillaro said she knows of no other artist doing similar work. Her sculpture draws on a 15th-Century French painting technique that created an image that changed when viewed in a mirror.

Mortillaro has resurrected the form and taken it one step further by making three-dimensional figures whose images are distorted and corrected in the mirrors.

“It is a wonderful vehicle for exploring visual perceptions,” Mortillaro said.

Mortillaro will be displaying and discussing her work at the third Interdisciplinary Symmetry Congress and Exhibition Aug. 14-20 in Washington, D.C. The congress is sponsored by the International Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Symmetry.

“I am excited about the congress, and I think it is interesting they invited me,” she said. “Their interest is in symmetry, and my work is in asymmetry.”

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FULLERTON

Colin Powell to Speak at Cal State Event

Cal State Fullerton has formed a 31-member blue-ribbon committee to plan an annual event that would spotlight the university’s relationship with Orange County.

The committee’s inaugural event will be Jan. 18, 1996, featuring Colin Powell, retired four-star general, as keynote speaker.

Proceeds from the event at The Pond of Anaheim will be used for scholarships, university officials said.

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ORANGE COAST COLLEGE

Grants Office Raised $1.4 Million Last Year

The grants office at Orange Coast College raised nearly $1.4 million for various programs and projects at the Costa Mesa campus during the 1994-95 academic year. The sum is more than double last year’s total of $600,000.

The office, in its third full year of operation, received grants from federal sources, the state and the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.

Grant writer Patsee Ober said the funds “have allowed faculty and staff to broaden their horizons.”

--COMPILED BY HOPE HAMASHIGE, MIMI KO AND ALAN EYERLY