Author: Dick Termes

This Termesphere® is called LIFE’S UPS AND DOWNS.   It is a 16” diameter sphere which played off of a 15th century stairway in India that helped people get to a source of water far below.  These stairways interested me because they didn’t just go straight up but rather up and out with each new step.  This helped more people get started on the top and focused them to the smaller area down where the water was.  It must have been a little crowded down there.  If you look at the image of this sphere you will see that.  As you go up to the next level you gain more and more stairs.  It was a great challenge to my perspective system and to me to figure out how you do this.  It is one thing to just spread out normal stairs as you go up and out but to go up and have this many choices of which way to go added another complexity to the painting.

It is fun when playing with a new idea like this to try to figure out how you use it to say something you want to talk about.  I used it for this reason.  I have humans working their way from the bottom world to the top.  Along the way they find evil monsters under many of the stairways.  They have to get by these evil creatures or confront them.  Sometimes we have to go sideways or even back down the stairs to find the proper way to continue life’s progress.,  We all have to find out own way.

Here  is a youtube video that shows this sphere in motion.

It is traveling with the South Dakota Governor’s 5^th Biennial Art Exhibition to three museums in South Dakota, the Dahl Fine Arts Center, the South Dakota Art Museum and the Sioux Falls Washington Pavilion.

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I am planning to spend a little more time on my blog.   That doesn’t mean I am giving up on Facebook,   I just plan to move you over to the blog for more details in some of my concepts so I have a little more room.   I really enjoy getting replies back from people on some of these ideas.  So at least once a week I will explain some new and old ideas to see if I can get some input from you.

I thought I would start at the beginning, explaining what I am trying to accomplish.  So, what is a Termesphere®?

For over 40 years I have been exploring a whole new concept in art and math.   I paint on spheres which, when completed, are known as Termespheres®.   Each Termesphere® is a revolving three-dimensional space/time exploration of an entirely closed universe, meaning that what you see, rotating in front of you, is a complete environment.   This uses a concept of Six Point Perspective to make it work.   I have lectured on Six Point Perspective and shown my Termespheres® and polyhedron paintings worldwide.

This shows two spheres that demonstrate Six Point Perspective.

CUBICAL UNIVERSE is a sphere of endless rooms within rooms which uses the Six Point Perspective.   Notice the three sets of lines within this piece and how the lines project to the vanishing points.

With THE LORETTO CHAPEL,   I spent about six days in the Loretto Chapel capturing this environment in Santa Fe, New Mexico.   I started this piece with six equal distant vanishing points.   If a line projects to the north, the same line projects to the south.   Look closely at the pews.  They run to the north and to the south?   I could have been located anywhere within this Chapel and the six points would still be in the same place, equal distance from each other.   If you know of any environments like this, let me know, OK?

So, this is a summary, this is one of the things I do in my work.   I hope to break down my thoughts and get some ideas back from you on some of these.  Hope you will join me.

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The question is; should an artist ever take older works and go back into them years later?   I guess my feeling is, sometimes it seems like a good idea.  Sometimes after an idea circles in your mind for a number of years you understand more the second time around.   I haven’t done this very often but I have done it a few times.  I guess if I feel I can improve on them, why not leave behind the best work I can.  The bad side of this is that you lose the history of the artist.  I guess I think I am leaving enough of that behind anyway.  A few of the spheres I have reworked including HARMONIOUS WORLD and HUMANS FROM THE UNIVERSE which are shown below.   Both of these had nice substructures growing from three dimensional geometries but I felt they could have more levels of interest to them.  I transformed some of the patterns into a designed realism of animals and human forms.  I like them much better now but the question is, should an artist do such a thing?  Do you think they are improved or should I have left them alone?  You are probably saying, too late now.