Was six point perspective discovered or found?
Well, I have been painting spheres for almost 35 years now and it is still as filled with discovery and fascination today as it was low, those many years ago.
It seems you must think so as well, judging from the many inquiries, emails, visits and phone calls I receive. To that end (and to satisfy my very pushy webmaster’s demands) we have decided to create this bi-monthly newsletter.
We hope you enjoy catching up with the news from the world of Dick Termes. Visit the website www.termespheres.com and keep in touch.
Termespheres (some new, some historic) and the thoughts behind them
The latest finished sphere is a 24″ diameter spherical painting called FOOD FOR THOUGHT. This painting shows the total environment of the inside of the restaurant in the La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I selected this site because of the colors and the strong structures that lend themselves to my perspective. There were some interesting challenges to this piece like getting round tables to fit into the six point perspective of the building.
This hotel has great history behind it, going back some 400 years. A ghost stands in a circle pattern on the floor where a well once existed. The story goes that after an unlucky fellow lost his company’s money in a card game at the Hotel, he ended it all by diving into the well. Supposedly, his soul still lingers, awaiting restitution. I have always had the ability to not have to be where I was……………………Dick Termes For those who haven’t seen my last three commissions, take a look here.
Recent Work
Lewis and Clark
AGAINST THE CURRENT
Deadwood’s 1876 panoramic
PORTHOLE TO THE PAST
Avera St. Luke’s Hospital
STAIRWAY OF LIFE
Past Workshop and Shows
This summer I did workshops for the Center for Excellence at Black Hills State University. The participants were some of the top math and science high school students from South Dakota.
I gave the students a tour of the Termesphere Gallery as well as a slide lecture on my other work. The next morning we built polyhedra structures with Magzs and foam balls and sticks. The students came up with some wonderful new structures that were excitingly new to me. After building unique polyhedra the students painted them with the idea of bringing out the polyhedron’s inner rhythms. The students then took their own works home.
I also conducted two other workshops at Black Hills State University. One was called Art Through Math, Math Through Art and the other was Organizing Your Intuition. These workshops ran concurrently for five days and were sponsored by South Dakotans for the Arts and Black Hills State University.
At the Discovery Center in Pierre we continued our ongoing Platonic Solids project. This time we created two more polyhedron paintings for the Center. Now a tetrahedron, a dodecahedron, an octahedron and a cube all hang at the Discovery Center. Next year we will finish the set of Platonic Solids with an icosahedron painting.
Current Shows and Workshops
Termespheres are currently part of a Group Show at Bradford Brinton’s 3rd Biennial Invitational which includes sixty five artists from across America. Bradford Brinton is a wonderful Museum/Gallery on a ranch near Sheridan Wyoming. This current show will be open to the public through October 3, 2004.
At the Tweed Museum of Art the Termesphere FINISHING AN ESCHER is currently showing. The University of Minnesota, Duluth put together a traveling show called Mathematical Instinct. Some of the tour stops include Rutgers University in Camden NJ and the University Art Museum, University of Richmond VA.
Future Shows and Workshops
- November, 2004-Termesphere show and workshops, Mt. Marty College, Yankton SD
- February, 2005-Creative Connections in Germany
- April 28-29, 2005-All Dakota High School Exhibition and workshops, Groton SD.
- June, 2005 A showing of Termespheres at Black Hills State University, Spearfish, SD
“IDEA” is how I make my living—Dick Termes
Dick’s Works in Progress
The 24″ diameter sphere I am painting now is called BRAIN STRAIN. It is a 30 point perspective piece using rows of cubes as the subject. The object of this piece is to show that you can use more than six points for perspective. To use more than six points requires that there be some other things going on in a room which are not moving parallel to the original room.
Turning a table so it isn’t running with the room will create another four points on the sphere. Tipping it up on one leg will create six more vanishing points which are different than the original room. So if you have a group of cubes parallel to each other they will go to a set of six points. That means this painting with the tipped table now uses twelve point perspective. If you keep adding more sets of cubes which are not parallel they will continue to need another six points. One thing that is consistent is that each of the sets of six points will always be equal distant on the sphere.
On this piece I use five sets of the six point perspective to get to the thirty point perspective. I didn’t want these to be just anywhere, so I organized the vanishing points on the middle of the edges of a dodecahedron. The dodecahedron which has twelve pentagons in it, has thirty different edges in it. Each edge has five other edges around the dodecahedron that are equal distant.
Another way to think about it is that the vertices (corners) of the octahedron are six equal distant points. Five of these octahedron corners can be found touching the center of the edges of the dodecahedron. That is how I organized these thirty points. So the five different groups are each organized to their own six point perspective systems but those five have another order holding them together.
Another important part of this piece is COLOR. I am trying something new with color. I will explain more about this next time.
Publications
I am VERY pleased to have a chapter in the book MASTERS OF DECEPTION by Al Seckel. It will be sold in all of the major bookstores this October including the Termesphere Gallery. It is a book about optical illusion artists, Escher and Dali as well as eighteen other artists. The book explains how my spherical paintings give the sense of being inside the sphere when you look at them. Many views of the eight spheres are shown in full color. Other very prominent artists like Rob Gonsalves, Jos De Mey, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Scott Kim and Octavio Ocampo are also featured. If you don’t know them now, you will after you see their work. It is the type of work you don’t forget.
Another book on perspective titled, INSTRUMENTOS PARA LA GEOMETRIA PERSPECTIVA was released in Mexico recently. The sphere, St. Peters is shown.
Other recent books with chapters about Termespheres are THE VISUAL MIND edited by Michele Emmer and printed by MIT Press, M.C. ESCHER LEGACY edited by D. Schattschneider and M. Emmer and a French publication, MATHEMATICS AND ART edited by Claude Brutner from the University of Paris.
As always, thank you for your tremendous support and encouragement. We would love to hear what you think. Feel free to call anytime at 800-642-4805 or email us termes@blackhills.com
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