Spearfish, South Dakota
Dick Termes
In 1968, Dick Termes figured out how to paint the entire visual world on the outside of a sphere. Half a century later, he has built a lifetime creating hundreds of worlds that spin before your eyes.
Photo: Aaron Packard
Dick grew up in Spearfish, studied art at Black Hills State University, and left for graduate school at the University of Wyoming. It was there, in 1968, that he worked out a six-point perspective system that could map a complete surrounding environment onto the surface of a sphere. He completed his MFA at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, then came back to South Dakota, built a studio on family land just outside Spearfish, and never left.
That decision to stay, to build everything from one fixed point on one specific piece of ground, runs through the work. Every Termesphere begins from a single point in space.
His sons Lang and Kabe grew up on that land. His wife Markie, a traveling puppeteer whose state-supported troupe has performed in nearly every town in South Dakota, has been his partner in all of it for nearly 50 years.
Dick termes has painted over 400 Termespheres have been painted since he did the first one in 1968.
They are in permanent collections at West Point Military Academy, the Glasgow Science Centre, the Science Centre Singapore, and Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. His work has been published in journals from MIT Press, the Mathematical Association of America, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The French edition of Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time put one of his spheres on the cover.
He has lectured and led workshops around the world, connecting art, mathematics, and perception for audiences from elementary school students to university researchers. In 1998, he was invited to exhibit at the University of Rome alongside the work of M.C. Escher. George Escher, M.C. Escher’s son, said that Dick was “a contemporary artist who matches my father’s quest in capturing the ‘un-capturable.’”
He received the South Dakota Governor’s Award in the Arts, was inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame, and on September 9, 2014, the city of Spearfish designated Dick Termes Day in his honor.
Recognized by
- South Dakota Hall of Fame
- South Dakota Governor’s Award in the Arts
- Dick Termes Day — September 9, Spearfish, South Dakota
- University of Rome, exhibited alongside M.C. Escher — 1998
- Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time, French edition
- Published in Leonardo (MIT Press), Science (AAAS), Math Horizons (MAA)
- Featured in Masters of Deception, foreword by Douglas Hofstadter
- Keynote speaker, California Art Teachers Association
- National Math Conference, 2011
For nearly 50 years, Dick and his wife Markie Scholz have built a life and livelihood together at the Termesphere Gallery. Markie is a traveling puppeteer who has performed in nearly every town in South Dakota, and in many states across the country. Their two sons, Lang, now in Bozeman, and Kabe, now in the San Francisco Bay Area, grew up in the domes among the spheres. They all call the Termesphere Gallery their home and it is where Dick Termes still works and paints every day.