9″ Termesphere
Painted: 1969
Location: Termesphere Gallery
This is the first sphere Dick Termes ever painted. It was painted with oil paints on a small nine inch diameter kids toy ball. He painted while he was studying at the University of Wyoming.
The image is an interpretation of a how a cube would look painted on a sphere – because of his earlier studies in perspective, Termes realized that in order to paint a cube on a sphere he needed to think of being inside the cube rather than outside. This epiphany was really the conception point for all his works to come.
Simpler in concept to his later work, Termes simply imaged himself standing in a room. He then painted all of the lines in the room so they would point to the middle of the room. A mirror painted on one of the walls shows the way the room would change as your position changed, depending on where standing.
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- A person outside the sphere picking moons like fruit from a tree.
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- A person trying to get control of the Universe by picking spheres from the sky.
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- A table with a ball with a cube painted on it. It also shows a sheet of paper with a cube in six point perspective. The three sets of pole is shown by three sticks stacked on the table.
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- The man painting on the sphere on the table is shown in this mirror on the wall. The light bulb is in front of his head symbolizing a new idea is discovered.