Termesphere Online Gallery

Category: Newsletters

  • April 2009 Newsletter

    Thinking in the Round Exhibit

    50 Termespheres are hanging and rotating in the Stan Adelstein and Lynda Clark Gallery at the Dahl Arts Center in Rapid City South Dakota. This is the largest exhibition I have ever put together. The space is wonderful for hanging Termespheres!

    New DVD

    I recently developed a DVD on ONE THROUGH FIVE POINT PERSPECTIVE. This DVD shows me using grids to creating drawings of one through five point perspective. This system of using perspective grids is a wonderful new way to teach students. The DVD is in fast motion so you can go through the six drawings in 40 minutes.

    Should an Artist Re-work Old Paintings?

    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.

    Common Grounds Sphere

    My latest Termesphere is called COMMON GROUNDS.   It is a 16 ” diameter sphere of our local coffee shop.   Markie and I go for coffee there most mornings.  I spend a lot of time watching people when we are there.

    Termes Featured in Make Magazine

    “In the Round” by Donna Tauscher was published in volume 17 of Makezine.  To quote the information about the ezine, “MAKE is a quarterly project-based magazine… MAKE brings the do-it-yourself mindset to all the technology in your life.

    http://termespheres.com/blog/common-grounds-sphere/

  • December 2008 Newsletter

    Up Down and All Around

    For the last four months I have been working on a traveling display of my concepts for the H.O.P. (Hands-On Partnership) for Science, Literature and Art in South Dakota and the Discovery Center in Pierre. The display goes into a trailer which is checked out by libraries and schools around South Dakota. They set the display up and use it for a month. It has many hands-on exhibits or stations for students to explore different ideas. UP DOWN AND ALL AROUND helps students see and learn about the orders of total visual space.

    There are two original Termesphere spinning in holes in the entrance walls that invite you into this Exploratorium. There are four hinged walls that explain different parts of the display usually set up like corners of a cube that can be spread out to fit the size of the room it is in. Each of these walls are 4X7 foot.

    One of the stations is for students to explore ONE THROUGH SIX POINT PERSPECTIVE. The walls that contain this section show the grids used and some drawing results. There is also a DVD in the corner where I show students how to do all of these perspective systems.

    Another section has magnetic stick and steel balls for the students to put together to EXPLORE POLYHEDRA and THREE DIMENSIONAL GEOMETRIES. The goal is to help the attendees understand the total space around them by better understanding the geometries that fit in that total space.

    The walls show the step by step processes of my workshop I do in this area. Also there is a DVD that shows students a step by step process to learn these basic building blocks of nature and man.

    Polyhedra of the CAPTURED WORLDS are on a table for the students to fold up.

    TETRAEARTH AND TETRA ART Flat and three dimensional puzzles coming from the Earth and Art on the tetrahedron are in this section. One of the 4X7 walls is made of sheet metal which allows the magnetic puzzle sheets to attract to. A complicated three dimensional puzzle of the Tetra Earth with 28 faces is part of this section. John Conway from Princeton suggested this polyhedron. The four triangles of the Earth repeat seven times to fill this puzzle which is made up of a tetrahedron coming out of a icosahedron. This is a great challenge for the students.

    THE MIRRORED BALLS hang in one section. I painted one ball with mirrored faces so they better understand they are always in the middle of the mirrored sphere. There are many questions that are on the wall to get them thinking.

    THE TRANSPARENT SPHERE OF ST. PETER BASILLICA Questions:

    • Why does spinning this sphere make your eye/mind see only the front or the back?
    • Why do most people only see the concave or the back of the sphere when it is spinning?
    • What happens to the direction the ball is spinning?
    • Where are you located when you see the back side of the ball?

    The TERMESPHERE DVD section has a wall of our environment and another of many spherical paintings.

    THREE DIMENSIONAL POLYHEDRON PUZZLES TO PUT TOGETHER Five 16″ in diameter, three dimensional polyhedron, of the icosahedrons, dodecahedron, octahedron, hexahedron and the tetrahedron are on tables in the center. Each is covered with total environment images coming from Termespheres. These puzzle images are in the shape of triangles, squares, and pentagons. The students job is to fill in the sides with the proper polygon images to make total environments. Magnetic sheets are used to hold the polygons to the different sides of the three dimensional polyhedron. This helps students to be able to see in three dimensional space, the up, down and all around space.

    Science Magazine Artical about Termespheres

    SCIENCE magazine just came out with an article on Termespheres called Global Perspectives. Barbara Jasny who is Deputy Editor of the Science visited the Gallery this summer. I was pleased with her excitement about my work. You can see her article by Clicking Here.

    Hole of the Whole

    Look for this sphere to be unveiled at the Dahl Fine Arts Center in Rapid City in March!

    Discovering Perspective

    DISCOVERING PERSPECTIVE is a new sphere that shows where perspective comes from:
    This sphere has a cubical city in the round, 360 degrees in all directions. Square and rectangle canvases appear around the sphere showing the space of each of the different systems of perspective. This sphere makes you realize the same problems that map makers had when they tried to flatten the Earth into maps. These are the same problems we have when we try to draw the space around us on the flat surface. These photos show the different systems of perspective on the six point perspective sphere.


    Click on this image to see all the perspective points.

    True Perspective by Dick Termes

    When people ask me about the rules of one and two point perspective I have a little trouble answering their questions. I think of the flat perspectives as being systems which do the best they can to replicate but the real world the real visual world is a sphere world. The same as the flat maps of the Earth, they try the best they can but they are distortions of the real thing. This is a very touchy area to be in because one and two point perspective have been around for 500 years and are thought of as very perfect systems.

    I believe that all scenes that artists crop out of the world around them for their paintings are just that, a piece of the whole, the whole being the sphere or globe. So whenever artists want to know how to deal with flat perspectives I have to tell them it is a imperfect system. We must realize the images that are around us, if we tie them all together, would be best thought of as fitting on or in a sphere. Just because our eyes can see only about 160 degrees of our horizon we still know more is there. Stand in one spot and turn in a circle. Now standing in that same spot, turn again and look up and next, look down. Do you see that it is all tied together? How do we best map what you see and on what object? I believe the object that best fits that task is a sphere. When I paint my Termespheres I imagine I am inside a transparent sphere looking out at a world I want to paint. I copy that world onto the surface of the sphere. I then move to the outside to look at what I was inside of. When things fit as well as this, you know something is right. Nature’s answers are beautiful and so is the way these worlds fit onto a sphere. I do think of six point perspective as a discovery rather than an invention. The cubical six point perspective works very well. If all of the cubical world is parallel to each other, six points are all that are needed to capture that world. If a table is turned a little in that cubical world another four points are needed on the horizon line to take care of that twist. These points would be equally spaced pointss. If the table were turned 45 degree to the other cubes its vanishing points would be half way between the original points. There is a very tight system involved in spherical perspective that isn’t there in flat perspective. In spherical six point perspective, all lines are greater circles. All cubes within the scene project to all six vanishing points. The truest perspective probably would be found from within these spheres but some wonderful insights happens from looking at the outside of the spherical paintings

    Rudy Rucker and Dick Termes

    A site I would like to draw your attention to is one by Rudy Rucker. He visited our place this summer . This was his second trip to our home and gallery. When he got home to his blog he wrote some very nice comments about visiting our world. I hope you will check it out

    Markie pointed out that some of you may not know who Rudy Rucker is. In short, Rudy is quite a guy. So I could be sure to cover as much of his genius as possible, I headed over to Wikipedia and grabbed this snippet from his entry, “Rudolf von Bitter Rucker (born March 22, 1946 in Louisville, Kentucky) is an American mathematician, computer scientist and science fiction author, and is one of the founders of the cyberpunk literary movement. The author of both fiction and non-fiction, he is best known for the novels in the Ware Tetralogy, the first two of which (Software and Wetware) both won Philip K. Dick Awards. At present he edits the science fiction webzine Flurb.”

    27,500 Look at Termesphere, Reflecting Back on YouTube

    The YouTube video of the Adams House called REFLECTING BACK has drawn many hits from people. The optical illusion of this piece is one of its attractions. Even though the sphere is convex it seems to look concave when it is turning. It is as if you are looking at the inside of the ball. This happens with all of my spheres. An article in Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1991 by Al Brennan from South Dakota State University where he explained the illusion of the Termesphere. He called it the Termes Illusion. The world seems to be excited about it now.

    Black Hills Faces Magazine

    Black Hills Faces Magazine did a nice article on me. I even got to be on the cover…This was an article written by Kaija Swisher with photos taken by Mark Wanek and James Van Nuys. It was a rare article that gets into my personal world. I guess that is why they call it FACES FROM ALL OVER THE BLACK HILLS. I was excited about this magazine article. They do have extra copies of this at www.blackhillsfaces.com

    Thank you for reading to the end

    I hope some of my thoughts and new ideas will get some comments back from you, positive or negative.

    I love the way some of my math friends are making suggestions of concepts for me to consider. As always, thank you for your tremendous support and encouragement. I would love to hear what you think.
    Feel free to call at 888-642-4805 or email me termes@blackhills.com

  • December 2007 Newsletter

    A Round Town

    The sphere called A ROUND TOWN painted for the Convention Center in Sioux Falls has been installed!

    This new four foot diameter spherical painting called A ROUND TOWN was recently delivered and hung at the Convention Center in Sioux Falls. It was donated to the City of Sioux Falls by Avera McKennen Hospital. I spent six months on this painting.

    There are historical buildings of Sioux Falls on the bottom of the sphere along with a map of very early Sioux Falls. The grid of the map echoes the Convention Center’s tiled floor. Also in this area is the Falls of Sioux Falls which was the reason why the city was built where it was. The vertical lines of these older building project up into the upper section making the new buildings grow out of the past. The upper part of the sphere holds some of the future Sioux Falls buildings. Above this newer section on the top of the sphere is a cubical grid like the Convention Center’s post and lintel hallway that the sphere hangs in. This cubical structure flows throughout the piece helping to exaggerate the six point perspective used to hold the buildings and the art piece together. The cubical grid also transforms into the sun above the Falls. The rays of the sun expand to create the total Sioux Falls. The upper cubical structure and the lower square tiling both should help the sphere look as if it grew from that architectural spot in which it hangs. The colors play with a cross between pointillism and impressionism. This adds exciting color to look at. The ladies with their umbrellas on the bottom have a feeling of Seurat to them. The colors also have strong contract so the images can be seen from a great distance.

    It was wonderful that Avera McKennen commissioned A ROUND TOWN and donated it to the City of Sioux Falls. It is very well displayed. Thanks to Avera McKennen as well as Larry Rehfeld for putting this all together for me.

    New Sphere Just Finished

    Creatures in the Forest

    Creatures in the Forest is a forest scene that has transparent spaces between the trees. When you look into the sphere you see a landscape with creative animals in it. The foreground is basically vertical lines and the background landscape is horizontal lines. Both are painted in the same space, one is seen on the front while the other is seen on the inside of the same space.

    In the Works

    What I am working on at this point is a transparent 36″ diameter sphere. I started with a scene of cubical patterns projecting in six point perspective with a great deal of transparent areas between them. A variety of different size circles where drawn over this. I kept what was inside the circles transparent and painted everything on the outside of the circles with opaque white paint. This white paint now has been turned into a room that these circles (I think of them as spheres) are floating in. People are standing around in the room looking and studying the spheres floating by. The transparent spheres or bubbles have images showing up in them that are coming from the inside of the large sphere. It is interesting that when you look at the small bubbles the image moves across them. When you pull all the images together from all the individual bubbles it makes one total scene. If you get close enough to one of these holes or bubbles you can see the whole inside scene. I am not sure what that means but I think it means something. The transparent spheres do intrigue me. If designed right I can work on the convex as well as the concave sides.

    Matthews Opera House Sphere

    Another spherical painting I am just starting to work on is the MATTHEWS OPERA HOUSE SPHERE. They have commissioned me to paint a 30″ diameter sphere for their stairwell. It is their centennial year +1 of the opening of the Matthews Opera 1906 – 2006. I am just beginning this spherical painting. It will hold the reflection of the Opera as we see it today, the up, down and all around view. I am doing the drawing portion on the sphere at the Opera itself. It is very fun to be able to walk up and study the details right when you need to. Most of my famous interior series are done from the Total Photos I take. Look back at News letter #4 for information on that. This piece will also have historic events that have happened in the Opera woven into it. Paul Higbee of Spearfish is helping me with this history. He is a great historian in relation to the Opera as well as a very good friend.

    I am excited to get to paint this sphere for the Opera House because it has been very much a part of my life. It is extra special to have people from your home town fund your work! I have had one of my Termespheres in the Opera House stairwell for many years now. This new piece will be a little larger. It will be 30″ diameter rather than the 24″.

    It will be wonderful to mark 100 years of theatre activities and this incredible symbol for Spearfish with an art piece. I very much want to thank Linda and Bob Meyer for their work in finding the moneys for this painting.

    Where Have I Been Lately

    The North West Math Conference in Bellevue Washington was a wonderful experience. I was pleased to get to show six Termespheres and get to talk with people about them for three days. I was also one of the keynote speakers for the conference. I enjoyed the other speakers and the displays of books and other items. There were over 1800 math teachers from Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia at this conference.

    I am Fascinated by my Connection with Mathematics

    If math is the study of patterns, my work is very much related. When every line one draws is related to the first line you drew, there is some connection to Math. When the realism you draw grows out of a geometry grid, there is some connection.

    When I use the six-point perspective, which is six equal distant points on the sphere, and all lines must always extend to two opposite poles, there is math in this. When every cubical structure I draw must extend to all six equal distant points there is some connection to math. Every cubical line I draw on the sphere is a part of a greater circle.

    When the realistic world around you fits into this system of perspective, which all-cubical worlds do, that is mathematics. Many artists find their work fits with other disciplines, my work seems to go over very well with mathematicians.

    Does Art HAVE to Be Created on the Flat Surface?

    You might think this is a fact when you talk to many artists. Why can’t a painting idea be created in three dimensional space? Why do you have to take six-point perspective back to the flat surface? What if the idea works best in three dimensions?

    Just because we would like all things to fit in books doesn’t mean all things have to. You know, we live in a three dimensional world, not the two dimension of the book. I think also many artists wanted to be able to reproduce their ideas for more sales and it is much harder to reproduce in the third dimension. That, maybe could have a lot to do with how they wanted their images to turn out.

    When I was at Otis Art Institute in Los Angels I was ask by one of my fellow students, when was I going to “Get serious and get back to the Flat Surface”. I am pretty glad I didn’t get serious.

    Why does the Termes Illusion work?

    Why does the Termesphere seem to flip and read like it was a concave surface and the motion reverse? My opinion is this: all illusions work because the mind is used to one thing and the designer or artist pushes the image away from that normality. The illusion happens when the mind pushes it back to what it thinks is normal. With the Termesphere, your mind wants to be on the inside of this image to have it be normal. The normal visual world around us is, to our minds, concave. Our minds will push the sphere image, convex, back from the outside of the sphere to the inside, concave. The realism is important for this illusion to happen because we feel like we are more in a normal world with realism. The abstract or geometrically painted spheres can just be that, paint on a sphere. Why is the faster motion important? That is a little harder for me but I think it has to do with you being able to pull the total image together and not think of it as pieces of pictures. When it is all one scene, we know that it is like the world that is always outside of us and we know that scene is on the concave.

    Where Do Ideas Come From?

    I believe most of my ideas come from art pieces I have done in the past. Ideas grow from ideas.

    Ideas also come from other artist’s work and from studying geometry of the sphere and also from theories in Science that I read.

    Many building interiors also have inspired my art. I have done a whole series of Famous Interiors of places like Notre Dame, Saint Chappell, St. Denis, Paris Opera in France, Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, St. Peters and the Pantheon in Rome, Stone Stonehenge and The Globe Theater in England. The Matthews Opera House that I am now working on is part of this series.

    Some of my ideas grow from my subconscious mind. I sometimes paint a loose abstract painting with no image in mind. The patterns and colors stimulate images and ideas. I just have to be brave enough to follow my intuition for these images. It is fun to see what ideas are hidden within my mind.

    Thank you for reading to the end

    I hope some of my thoughts will get some comments back from you, positive or negative and new ideas.

    I love the way some of my math friends are making suggestions of concepts for me to consider. If you would like to be taken off this newsletter list please let me know. As always, thank you for your tremendous support and encouragement. I would love to hear what you think.
    Feel free to call at 888-642-4805 or email me termes@blackhills.com

  • December 2006 Newsletter

    The Globe Theatre in London

    This is a 24-inch diameter spherical painting of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London. Markie and I were there two years ago. It seemed the perfect subject for a Termesphere globe of the Globe. Later when I decided to create this piece I researched it in books, the Internet and the movie “Shakespeare’s in Love”. The cylindrical auditorium with the small compartments for seating helped with the idea that “all the world’s a stage.” Images of five plays are shown in this piece as well as images of Queen Elizabeth and Shakespeare.

    In the Works

    I am working on a 24″ sphere commission for Tom and Theresa Matthews. They live just over the state line in Beulah Wyoming. The sphere plays with images of the Matthews’ Ranch twenty miles south of Gillette Wyoming. Four generations with the name Tom Matthews have worked on this family ranch from 1881 into today. The T7 Ranch, as it is called, has been the foundation for many Matthews individuals. The Matthews family was responsible for the Matthews Opera House as well as the whole Matthews Block of buildings in Spearfish South Dakota. This sphere incorporates these people and their influence in this area.

    I am also working on a transparent sphere which may be called CREATURES ON THE FOREST. It will have a forest on the front side of the sphere. Through the open transparent spaces between the trees you will see creatures and a landscape on the backside of the sphere. This sphere seems to open another whole direction for the Termespheres. The image shown below is an in-process photo of the two sides of this painting. It is a challenge to paint two different images on the same place. Another transparent sphere painted ahead of this one is REFLECTIONS THROUGH THE MIRROR (which is also transparent).

    This room is filled with mirrors on the walls. When you look into the transparent mirrors you see what is on the back side of the sphere. The cool part of this piece is that the reflection is reading correctly, it is what would be behind you and also a backwards mirror image. It is an odd place to find a true refection–on the back side of the ball.

    Publications

    TRANSFORMATIONS AND PROJECTIONS IN COMPUTER GRAPHICS by David Salomon was published by Springer 2006. I am very pleased to have this book dedicated to me. My contribution to this book has to do with the use of many of my images. In the section on CYLINDRICAL PANORAMIC PROJECTION Solomon uses my continuous Four Point Grid and one of my drawings. He also used my grids from one through six point perspective and examples of my drawings with each. The drawing of St Peters as a dodecahedron is also used. My patent on the TOTAL PHOTO is included. I was pleased with this as many new approaches to capturing total 360-degree worlds are coming into being and it is nice to have them know I was there in 1980.

    FOOD FOR THOUGHT AND THE SPHERE CALLED EMPTINESS are shown in full color.

    Workshops

    The South Dakota Lions Club hired me to do workshops with a group of International students in Volga South Dakota July 2-3 and 4th. We produced a large icosahedron that was left at the sight.

    I was at Western Washington University in Bellingham July 11-14 this summer. I worked with 70 math teachers. They came from all over the state of Washington. I did the perspective workshop and the polyhedra workshop. It was exciting for me to see how the math mind related to these workshops. They did a wonderful job, by the way.

    The end of September I flew out to Phillips Exeter Academy and spent three days. I had sent ahead a showing of Termespheres. I also did workshops with the math and art students. What a fun educational environment that was!

    I spent a day doing workshops on perspective with the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival in Rapid City October 20th 2006. Along with the workshop I had eight Termespheres hanging around in the environment.

    Virtual Termespheres

    Ryan Packard has put together some wonderful Virtual Panoramic views of my Termespheres. He puts you inside six spheres that you can turn with your mouse to see any part of them. You can find them on the homepage of my site www.termespheres.com You must look at them! They are way cool. These virtual programs are of FOOD FOR THOUGHT, ST. MARKS SQUARE, LOOKING FOR THE ORDER, THE PANTHEON, LORETTO CHAPEL IN THE ROUND and OLD BALL GAME

    Quicktime credit to Ryan Packard

    Awards

    I received a couple of honors this last month.

    RUSHMORE HONORS by the Rapid City Area Chamber of Commerce Sept 14, 2006.
    SPEARFISH HIGH SCHOOL FINE ARTS HALL OF FAME which will be given December 14, 2006.

    Six Point Perspective

    SIX POINT PERSPECTIVE ISN’T JUST FOR THE FUN OF IT,
    IT’S IN THE REAL WORLD ALSO

    By Dick Termes 10-06-06
    This will become a major paper but I will try to condense this idea for the newsletter.
    My thesis is that spherical paintings are closer to reality than flat paintings.

    Any painter should be aware that if you are true to the reality of what we see, all paintings, including flat ones, are a piece of the whole visual sphere around you. If you don’t think the visual world is a sphere around you, take another look. The image in front of you is attached to more and more image until it comes right back to the original image, any direction you might want to go. This is a sphere. Six point perspective is the order this world around you can be organized to. Six point perspective especially works well if the environment around you is a cubical environment.

    To help explain the statement above, think about this: Imagine being inside a transparent ball that you have put six equal distant dots on. With the transparent ball on your head, move inside a cubical building. Look through the transparent ball at the building’s three sets of parallel lines. They run north/south, east/west and up and down. The rule in traditional perspective is all parallel lines go to the same vanishing point. In my system of six point perspective on the sphere, all parallel lines go to two vanishing points, north/south, east/west and up/down. These points will be opposite poles on the ball.

    As you look through your transparent ball, make sure one of the dots on the transparent ball is directly above your head. Keep your eyes in the center of the ball when observing all of this. Now, look at the outside building and look where one of the vanishing points would be located. Remember, all parallel lines go to the same vanishing point. When you have located one of the vanishing point of your building, line up this vanishing point with a dot on the ball. After you have overlapped this vanishing point with the dot on the ball, keep the ball stable. Now rotate your eyes within the ball and notice all the other lines of the outside building will project to the other dots on the ball. If the first set of lines you worked with run to the north direction then they will also run across the ball to the south direction. Turning your eyes now within this stable ball notice the next dot to the east will also line up with the dot on the ball. Those lines that aim at the east vanishing point (and dot also) will swing across the ball in greater circles to the west vanishing point which is also another dot on the ball. You don’t have to be in the center of the cubical room for this to happen, it will happen no matter where you are located within the cubical building.

    So, my thesis is that these six equal distant points are in the world around us all the time. This isn’t something I came up with just to make the spheres look good, it is real.

    The Termesphere is not just a fun technique, in my mind, it is closer to how things are than any flat surface can be. It is the way we see–that whole picture is always there. All we have to do is turn and look.

    Seeing is a spherical idea just like the Earth is a spherical idea. Both are distorted when seen on the flat. Both read correctly when seen on the sphere. The same problems and the same solutions can be used for trying to get them to the flat. All of these have distortion. Polyhedra can be used but they have distortion. Different kinds of projections also can be used. One through Five Point Perspective is our attempts to get this spherical information onto the flat surface.

    Why is this important? This visual sphere is with us every second of our lives. It is always around us. I think it is important to understand something we have to live with so closely.

    Thank you for reading to the end

    I hope some of my thoughts will get some comments back from you, positive or negative and, new ideas.

    I love the way some of my math friends are making suggestions of concepts for me to consider. If you would like to be taken off this newsletter list please let me know. As always, thank you for your tremendous support and encouragement. I would love to hear what you think.
    Feel free to call at 888-642-4805 or email me termes@blackhills.com

  • November 2006 Newsletter

    Recent Works

    SCIENTIFIC RELIGION or STONEHENGE 24″ diameter was just completed. It grew from a trip to England last winter when Markie and I did a two day workshop in Alconbury Air Force Base. We also took four days to see England. We had a very fun and inspiring trip to Stonehenge where I got the idea for this spherical painting. Stonehenge had an interesting feeling of Science and Religion which I tried to capture in this piece. I used a very strong angular geometry coming off the sun and a geometry based on the circle coming off the moon. Both of these were very important to man.. It was most exciting for me being at one of the first Cathedrals built by man and also one of the first Observatories of the heavens built by man. We are pretty sure the Sun and the Moon both could have been involved in the creation of this environment. Markie and I both felt it was MUCH MORE than what we expected to see. The cold weather also made my ears and hands turn to stone.

    Commission

    The Mount Marty’s Sphere is close to being finished. It is a 16″ diameter sphere of the inside of the new library at Mount Marty. Images of the history of Mount Marty also float within this building. There is a very interesting shift the architect did to add variety to this building. The outside of the building is organized to a cubical structure but the inside is shifted to a diagonal of that outside structure. This required me to use eight rather than four points around the middle of the sphere. It took me a while before I discovered this is what the architect did. The piece is coming along very well and should be finished soon.

    Wrigley Field is another commission I am soon to start on. It will be a 16″ diameter sphere also. It was commissioned by Alyce Schavone of Spearfish for Tony, her husband, who has passed away. Tony spent a lot of time at the Cubs games when he was a kid. I remember almost every time I saw Tony he would always say, “Hey Termes, you’ve got to paint Wrigley Field on one of your Termespheres.” Alyce caught me a while back and said, “Let’s do it.” I think it will be very exciting to paint. I took a trip to Chicago and got to see the Cubs play the Dodgers. It didn’t work out so well for Chicago. The score was 11 to 1 but I did get three wonderful total photos and many detailed photos of the experience. I will begin this painting very soon.

    While in Chicago I got to spend some time with Chanda, my niece, her husband Edger and their two great boys Turner and Riley. I also went to Millennium Park and took a couple of total photos inside and outside of Sky Bridge which is a wonderful large reflective sculpture that is in the shape of a large bean (as Edger calls it). I enjoyed seeing what an inside concave reflection looked like. I always wondered what the inside of a reflective sphere would look like. Now that I have seen, at least a part of the inside of a reflective sphere, I still don’t understand it. What a great study the inside of a mirrored ball would be…

    Thoughts on the Total Photo

    I want to spend a little time explaining the total photo as it seems like this type of photograph is now of more interest to the world than it was when I invented it. I receive a patent, number 4,214,821, on the total photograph in July of 1980. This shows the abstract below.

    For more on this pattent click here

    The Total Photo is a spherical photograph displayed on the outside surface of all the Platonic Solids or Regular polyhedra. It does with photography what my spherical Termespheres do with paint. It captures the up, down and all around environment from one point in space. In the beginning I explored all five of the regular polyhedron, the tetrahedron(1), hexahedron(2), octahedron(3), dodecahedron(4), icosahedron(5). I also explored the pop up polyhedron. I found with my Superwide Hasselblad camera the dodecahedron worked the best.

    It would look more normal if you were inside the polyhedron and let it be an environment around you. I have taken pictures of many famous interiors around the world. Some of these have helped me to paint spherical paintings of these environments.

    Taking pictures of one of my Termesphere paintings was what inspired me to figure out the total photo. I wanted to take pictures all around a spherical painting so it could be put together on the flat surface. I learned very quickly if the photo were to be put back together in some kind of orderly way, it had to be photographed in some geometric way. I knew about the different polyhedra that fit on the sphere. I drew the icosahedon onto the surface of a painting with erasable ink. I set my camera and tripod up so I could shoot straight into each of the triangles. This was done by turning the sphere in a cylinder until the center of each triangle was in the center of the lens. The result turned out very well but I learned the triangles were bulging out triangles rather than straight line triangles. This was a problem as I had to either cut off part of the image or have a black pattern between each triangle. I ended up with dark patterns between the triangles. This wasn’t as smooth as I was hoping but it opened my mind to painting on polyhedra and taking on the concept of the total photo. The total photo has become a great tool for me for doing the famous interior Termespheres. I believe this total photo concept has transformed into what is now called virtual panoramic photos.

    Virtual Panoramic Views of Termespheres

    Some wonderful new ways to do panoramic photos and virtual reality panoramic have now come into the world through the computer. These systems, like the total photo, allow you to see the total picture around you. This program can be tricked into thinking my Termespheres are environments and can put you inside the spheres. Several different people have played with my work and gotten some pretty exciting results. Check out these sights to see some exciting new way to look at Termespheres.

    Six Senses By Larry Lohrman
    The Scholz Home By Larry Lohrman

    Ryan Packard has done some extensive exploration with this system and is getting very close to helping me reproduce my spheres without melting them down. This is a really exciting for me because three of my past spheres that I wanted to reproduce are now only found in flat disk forms. In the past I had to actually heat the hemisphere of my acrylic original spheres until they melted to the flat. Once they were flat I could take that image and silkscreen it on flat pieces of plastic. These flat silk-screened on plastic would then be blown back into hemispheres and glued back together as spheres. Ryan has so far taken pictures all the way around three of my spheres and made Virtual Panoramic pieces out of them. This means with the help of your computer, you can be inside the sphere and turn and look up, down and all around. It is a wonderful experience.

    He also has flattened these spheres into two flat disks which we think are very close to what would happen if we melted them down. This makes me very happy. Also he can take the spheres and turn them into polyhedron shapes. These polyhedron seem to fit together very well. He has given me a very large amount to think about.

    Current and Future Shows and Workshops

    October 7th- February 15th I had an opening for the one-man- show at the Washington Pavilion in Sioux Falls SD There are 12 spheres in that show which hangs in the stairwell of the atrium to the visual arts section. I also did a workshop on perspective and a lecture on the Termespheres

    October 21st – February 15th There was an opening for my one-man-show of 28 Termespheres at the Octagon Art Center in Ames Iowa. I also did a workshop and lecture at the Octagon Art Center.

    February 1st – March 1st 2006 I will be doing a show at the Cam-plex gallery in Gillette Wyoming. I will also be doing a lecture and workshops.

    2006 a show and workshop at the Lamont Gallery at the Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, NH

    February 4th-10th I will be teaching a week long intensive workshop for DODDS students at Creative Connections in Germany

    Shows Taking Place at this Time

    This has been a very interesting time for shows of Termespheres. I have two major shows going at the Washington Pavilion in Sioux Falls and the Octagon Art Center in Ames Iowa. Another three spheres are in a show at the Hearst Art Gallery at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, California. My Termesphere Gallery in the Black Hills still has a lot to look at. I always have a sphere at the Bay Leaf Café in Spearfish, usually the newest piece. I have a sphere in an Art and Math show put together by Claude Bruter that has been traveling all around France.

    Publications

    David Salomon is writing a book on Art and Math which will have a lot of information on my six point perspective spherical paintings. He has produced many books in the past and is a retired professor from the Computer Science Department of California State University Northridge California. I am looking forward to seeing this book in print.

    Al Seckel is working on an enlarged edition of MASTERS OF DECEPTION which was published last year. I am adding more spheres to this new book.

    Dr. Annalisa Crannell from Franklin and Marshall College and Dr. Marc Frantz from Indiana University received a National Science Foundation Grant to do a book on VIEWPOINTS: MATHEMATICAL PERSPECTIVE AND FRACTAL GEOMETRY IN ART by Princetion University Press which I am to be a part of.

    The Rapid City Chamber of Commerce is putting together a table top book on what to see in the Black Hills which I am pleased to be part of as well.

    Christmas is Coming Again

    WE ARE HAVING AN OPEN HOUSE on December 10th from 9:00am to 4:00pm and on the 11th from 12 to 4pm.

    Like last year we will have “a 5% off” special for all people coming to the Gallery or buying at my online store.

    To receive your Special Once-A-Year-December-10th-11th-Only online discount:

    1. Go to online store
    2. Add the products you want to purchase to your shopping cart
    3. When you are ready to check-out, look for the ‘voucher’ box towards the bottom of the shopping cart page
    4. Type the word Cheers! into the voucher box
    5. Click the recalculate button and like magic, your discount will appear

    If you have any problems email webmaster@termespheres.com.

    If you are looking for unique gifts, be sure to mark December 10th-11th on your calendar.
    $30 and up Original Spheres – Captured World Polyhedron Prints –
    Silk Screened 8″ Termespheres – Hemismirrors – Perspective Book –
    Masters of Deception Book – T-shirts – Magz Sets – Puppets – Markie’s Videos and DVDs of Dragons Are Too Seldom Puppet Shows and Termespheres – Pop-Up Total Photos

    Thank you for reading to the end

    I hope some of my thoughts will get some comments back from you, positive or negative and, new ideas. I love the way some of my math friends are making suggestions of concepts for me to consider. If you would like to be taken off this newsletter list please let me know. As always, thank you for your tremendous support and encouragement. I would love to hear what you think.
    Feel free to call at 888-642-4805 or email me termes@blackhills.com

  • April 2006 Newsletter

    I do thank you for your support and interest in my work. It is kind of fun putting these news letters together because I enjoy writing about my ideas and sharing some of these thought with you. I hope you will feel free to email me back and give me your thoughts on some of these ideas.

    Streets of a Story CD Release Concert

    I want to start this news letter off with some information on my son Lang Termes. I am very proud of what he has done with his music career. Not only is he finding steady gigs in Bozeman Montana but also creating 80% of the music he plays. I am pleased he sees the difference in playing what the world has already accepted and trying to find new paths. I know this is a much harder path to travel but in the end it is much more rewarding.

    Lang will be coming back to the Hills for a CD Release Concert at the Dahl Fine Arts Center in Rapid City on the 15th of April at 1:30. I hope any of you that can make it will come to this gathering and if you can’t, go to his website and listen to parts of these songs or buy his latest CD. Hope to see you there. This is his concert poster.

    Explaining Some of My Older Ideas

    CAPTURED WORLD POLYHEDRA
    When I created these polyhedron paintings, my interest was in getting the concept of the six-point perspective into a reproducible form. At that time I wasn’t able to reproduce the spherical paintings as spheres so the best next thing was to flatten the spheres into polyhedron so they could be reproduced.

    I wanted a similar concept to be on these polyhedra as was on the sphere. I also wanted the six-point perspective to look like it belonged on the different polyhedron. This meant I wanted the geometry of the perspective to fit with the geometry of the polyhedron. How do you get six equal distant points to fit in a sound way on the five regular polyhedron? The six equal distant points that I use on the sphere geometrically are equal to the six points or vertices of the octahedron. The Octahedron is a polyhedron that has eight equilateral triangles which make up its faces and these triangles come together into six junctions or vertices. My job was to see how these six points would fit into the other four regular polyhedra. After some study I found they do. I found out many people already knew they fit together but none of them were getting them to fit so that their drawing would look good so, at least got to that point first. In making this study I learned a great deal of new information on just how exciting the study of polyhedron was. It has turned into a couple of different workshops I offer to math and art classes. The following are examples of what I got from this thinking.

    CUBE WITH FOUR (THREE TWISTED) MOEBIUS INSIDE
    I created this sculpture around 1972. It was made from one inch metal cubical tubing welded together to make a stable two foot cube. From one corner a rod was welded so it could be displayed from a corner as the bottom. Holes were then drilled into the metal about an eight of an inch apart. Clear plastic line was woven into these holes and stretched around to three different edges of the cube. These three edges were going in three different directions, Up and down, north and south and east and west. The result was three bands of these triple twisted patterns floating inside the cube. I only strung these lines from the center one third of the edges of the cube. Something special goes on with the geometry because not one of the patterns created from this touched each other. My question to this day is, would this not touching have happened if I would have continued each of these bands out to the corners?

    This three twisted band which three are in this cube led me into another form I played with. Adding a little dimension to this band turns it into what is called the Penrose Tribar. (see illustration) This is an illusion that Roger Penrose invented and M.C. Escher explored. The Penrose Tribar is an impossible structure only possible as a drawing. Escher played with this structure when he created ASCENDING AND DESCENDING which shows people going up a stairway and coming right back to the bottom even though the people have gone only up the stairs. WATERFALL also uses the Tribar to show waterfalls that fall and fall but somehow come back to where they began.

    I would like to make a comparison with this impossible cubical structure. The drawing below shows how I progress from this cubical structure to an impossible cylinder structure. What do you think? Is it the same illustration except in cylinder form?

     

    Why I enjoy painting on Spheres

    I get asked, “Are you still painting on spheres?” a lot. I guess some people think I am just going in circles. Here is my comment to them.

    Think about how many paintings have been done on the flat surface over the past 2000 years. They have covered and recovered that flat surface pretty well. If you think just on the geometrical level of the difference between the flat surface and the sphere surface you will realize there is a lot of difference. The patterns, which fit on the flat, will not fit the same way on the sphere. So the sphere offers a whole different set of ideas which are not possible on the flat. Therefore, I would guess there are at least 2000 years of spherical painting ideas possible.

    New spheres just finished

    THE OLD BALL GAME
    This piece was finished and hung in Alyce Schavones’ home in Spearfish South Dakota. Alyce had a opening for her sphere February 24th. Going along with the Wrigley Field theme we had the proper beer and hotdogs at the gathering. We had a great time at this unique and fun opening.

    What I am working on

    It is in an early stage but it should be a most interesting concept.

    The room you are in is painted with opaque paint so you can’t see through it except there are lots of mirrors on the walls of the room. All of the mirrors are left transparent. When you look into the mirrors you are looking at the back-side of the sphere. The back-side of the sphere is conceptually what is behind you so the mirror is reflecting that. There are enough mirrors to let light into the inside of the sphere to allow it to show up when seen through the mirror.

    Where I have been lately

    CREATIVE CONNECTIONS was just completed. This was the fourth time I was invited to Oberwessel Germany to work with 15 arts students from the DoDDS-Europe. 150 fine arts students are picked from 35 High Schools. Theater, music, and the visual arts have a variety of areas they can study.

    GALLERY SHOWINGS OF TERMESPHERES This last month I showed 22 Termespheres and did workshops at the CAMPLEX CENTER in Gillette Wyoming. This show was up until March 3rd. The reception for this show was February 23rd. This was a wonderful place to show and great people to work with.

    I also just finished a workshop and showing with the Math Department at WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY in Bellingham Washington. I tied together slides of my work with the workshop of one through six-point perspective. I think it went over very well. I was also pleased that they gave each of the participants the book I have a chapter in called Masters of Deception by Al Seckel.

    I JUST SOLD A SPHERE TO the GLASGOW SCIENCE MUSEUM in Scotland. The lady there saw a Termesphere in the SINGAPORE SCIENCE MUSEUM and said she couldn’t get it out of her mind. Singapore has the FISH EYE VIEW and Glasgow will have THE HUMAN CAGE. The Singapore Science Museum has an optical illusion permanent show which has my sphere in it. I also have a sphere in The Discovery Museum in Acton Mass. So the Science Museums are showing quite in interest in my work.

    PENROSE TRIBAR SPHERE just sold to Tom Rogers from Atlanta Georgia. He is the organizer of the Gardner Conferences there and is a very good friend of Roger Penrose.

    Thank you for reading to the end

    I hope some of my thoughts will get some comments back from you, positive or negative and, new ideas.

    I love the way some of my math friends are making suggestions of concepts for me to consider. If you would like to be taken off this newsletter list please let me know. As always, thank you for your tremendous support and encouragement. I would love to hear what you think.
    Feel free to call at 888-642-4805 or email me termes@blackhills.com

  • April 2005 Newsletter

    Travels

    I spent a week in Germany at Creative Connections and met my wife Markie Scholz in London on the way back. While in England we both did two days of workshops, Markie with her puppets shows and workshops and me with my perspective and polyhedron workshops. We also had the opportunity to see Stonehenge while we were there which has been something Markie and I have dreamed about over the years. We both agreed we were not in the least disappointed. I couldn’t believe how noncommercial it was, a very large compliment to their State Park System ( English Heritage). Viewing one of the world’s largest stone circles was an inspiration that will undoubtedly grow into a future Termesphere. Back in London, we attended a play, HIS DARK MATERIALS which had a great concept behind it and included some wonderful puppets. You know who really got into that! Another fun and circular stop was the LONDON EYE. Billed as a combination of the elements of air, water, earth and time, it took 30 minutes for our one rotation. The view of London from on top of the giant Observation Wheel was extremely impressive.

    Publications

    I just received a beautiful new catalog from a show my work is in sponsored by the University of Paris called MATHEMATIQUES AND ARTS. It is a collection of the works of Math/Art people from around the world. This show was organized by Claude Bruter, a professor of Mathematics at the University of Paris in France. Many large photos of my spheres are part of this showing as well as THE SPIRIT OF GOTHIC HALL which is a 13″ diameter sphere that I did of the Gothic Hall in Bruge, Belgium.

    The good news is that the second publication of the book MASTERS OF DECEPTION Escher, Dali and the Artists of Optical Illusion is now out. The first printing was in Nov 2004. By mid December it was sold out. The book was put together by Al Seckel and the forward is by Douglas R. Hofstadter, Ph.D., author of GODEL, ESCHER, BACH. It has been very exciting to be part of this book. If you can’t find it in you local book store it is available at our gallery or in our online store.

    Termespheres (some new, some historic) and the thoughts behind them

    OLDER PAINTING GETS ATTENTION:

    PORTHOLE TO THE PAST is getting more attention because of the HBO Deadwood series. In 2002 I painted this 36 inch diameter sphere. It is a 360 degree view of the early Deadwood days (1876-77). It was commissioned by the Deadwood Visitors Center and the Preservation Commission. Recently I took some photographs of PORTHOLE TO THE PAST and produced a photo essay album of the images of people I painted. Many of the characters I painted in this piece are featured in the HBO series. I enjoyed going through old photographs and books to find the pieces and parts to make this 360 degree world realistic. I worked very hard to make this scene of Deadwood historically accurate. This Deadwood changed after the fire of 1879. If you haven’t seen this painting you should stop by the Deadwood Visitor Center (the old train depot downtown) and see it.

    Recent Work

    GARGOYLES IN SAINT DENIS is a 13″ diameter sphere which I just finished. How could I walk away from the strange gargoyles waiting on the outside of St. Denis and the tomes of the kings and queens of France waiting for me inside the Basilica? They literally screamed, “Termesphere”. I took three or four total photos of the interior of St. Denis in 1992 when I was in Paris to lecture and show slides on my spherical perspective at Ecole des Beaux Arts. It took me 13 years but finally St. Denis is a sphere. The Basilica is one of the first Gothic structures ever built. Because of the very strange feeling you have within this building I felt the Gargoyles needed to be inside to help with that feeling. It is a very strange place.

    TRI EVERY ANGLE is also now finished. It was a wonderful study of 5,120 triangles as a grid over the sphere and what all could grow from it. Many tessellating patterns and a landscape with people grew from this grid. I was most pleased with this study and also with the colors. The people coming from the triangles are amazingly real.

    Future Shows and Workshops

    Creative Connections is just over. I had 15 wonderful visual arts High School students in Oberwesel, Germany on the Rhein for five days to see what we could achieve. A total of about 150 fine art students come to Creative Connection which is part of the DoDDS-E system. Having this event center on the Fine Arts is an important concept. With students from dance, theater, music, and the visual arts there seems to be less competition and more support, which is very nice. Look up http://www.eu.dodea.edu/cc.htm to see more on this gathering. It is the kind of idea I would like to see South Dakota do with its Fine Arts High School Students.

    Markie and I also did two days of workshops in Alconbury Elementary and High School in England. Markie did shows with her puppets and workshops and I did slide lectures and workshops on polyhedra and perspective.

    • April 6th I will spend a day in the Pierre Middle School doing workshops with 7th grade students. On the 7th, 8th and 9th at the Discovery Center in Pierre, I worked with students to create a large Icosahedron painting. All five Platonic Solids have now been created for the Center.
    • April 12th and 13th I was in Sheridan working with two Elementary Schools. I also did a slide-lecture for the Sheridan Artists Guild and a small showing of Termespheres.
    • April 28th and 29th I will be in Groton, South Dakota working with students at 9th annual All Dakota High School Fine Arts Exhibition.
    • May 12th I will be in Belle Fourche at the Middle School doing workshops.
    • June 1st through the 30th I will have a showing of Termespheres at Black Hill State University in Spearfish SD.
    • June 13th – 17th I will work with High School students at Black Hills State University.
    • June20 – 24 I will teach two classes at Black Hills State University. One is called THE GEOMETRIES UNDER THE PAINTING and the other is TOTAL PICTURES.
    • June 28- 29th a gallery talk and slide lecture and workshop on polyhedra for High School students for the Center for the Advancement of Mathematics and Science Education in Spearfish.
    • July31st – 3th I will take a show and do a lecture on Math/Art at the Renaissance Banff in the Banff Centre, Banff, Canada
    • August 18th I will hang a Termesphere showing in the stairwell at the Washington Pavilion In Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
    • October 7th-8th the opening for the show and a lecture and workshop will take place at the Washington Pavilion.
    • October 19th I will take a show to the Octagon Center for the Arts at the Iowa State University in Ames Iowa.

    Patrons

    – I feel it is very important to say a few words about patrons to the arts. Many of us think we, as artists, are the only ones that make art happen. In reality, without patrons art would become a scarcity indeed. Patrons are the people who want art to happen enough to put their hard earned cash out there to see that art does happen. Artists would be a much smaller group if they had to create in a void. Perhaps they might be born in a rich family or all have two jobs to support their art. Patrons are not given enough credit in the art history books. Patrons also give the art a safe and good home whereas sometimes the artist has it stored in the back shed. Anyway, thank you patrons from all of us that rely on your help.

    End Note

    • A good idea is only as good as how hard you push it.
    • If you wait for that person to come along to discover you, you may be growing flowers rather than painting them.
    • Learn to listen to yourself…………
    • Perspective is the skeleton of visual space……….
    • When the body gives up, the mind has no home……….
    • A very interesting life is to challenge oneself to search for the orders in the Universe…
      They are there for us to find…………

    Thank you for reading to the end

    I hope some of my thoughts will get some comments back from you, positive or negative and, new ideas. I love the way some of my math friends are making suggestions of concepts for me to consider. If you would like to be taken off this newsletter list please let me know. As always, thank you for your tremendous support and encouragement. I would love to hear what you think.
    Feel free to call at 888-642-4805 or email me termes@blackhills.com

  • December 2004 Newsletter

    First Annual Christmas Open House!

    It’s time for some sphere-cheer!

    On December 11th and 12th we will host THE FIRST ANNUAL CHRISTMAS OPEN HOUSE at the Termesphere Gallery from 9 to 4 pm. There will be a 10% discount on everything purchased during these two days at the gallery or on the Termespheres.com website. Our address is 1920 Christensen Drive, Spearfish South Dakota. Telephone for directions at 605-642-4805 if you don’t know the way. Christensen Drive is the road just west of K mart and we are 1.7 miles down the road.

    Important note: If giving a Termesphere to everyone on your Christmas list is a bit out of reach this year, fear not! The Termesphere Gallery has lots of really cool, exceptionally unique gifts starting at $5.00.

    Publications – Masters of Deception

    by Al Seckel

    The book I mentioned in the last newsletter is now on the shelves of Barnes and Noble, Borders Books and the Termesphere Gallery. MASTERS OF DECEPTION – ESCHER, DALI AND THE ARTISTS OF OPTICAL ILLUSION by Al Seckel is very exciting indeed. Amazon.com had this to say:

    “Astonishing creations by masters of the art, such as Escher, Dali, and Archimbolo; amazing visual trickery; and an illuminating foreword by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author Douglas R. Hofstadter make this 320-page, breathtaking collection the definitive book of optical illusions.”

    Two of my favorite artists, M.C. Escher and Salvador Dali are featured along with eighteen others including Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Jos De Mey, Rob Gonsalves, Scott Kim, Octavio Ocampo, Istvan Orosz, John Pugh, Roger Shepard and Yours Truly (page 295-304). All are serious artists who love to play with illusions within their work. Each of us is featured in a ‘gallery’ (chapter) with incredible color reproductions of our works along with explanations of how our illusions weave within our art pieces. I think this is an outstanding book that has some of the most exciting illusion art found in the world and just fun to look at again and again.

    Termespheres (some new, some historic) and the thoughts behind them

    Each newsletter I like to explain one of my completed paintings. This time I would like to explain a little about the sphere ATOM AND EVE painted in 2002. This is a painting which combines science and religion. The science is the circular geometry which became the substructure for the painting. The circles that covered the whole sphere grew from a polyhedron that was first drawn on the sphere. I wanted the images that I invented from these circles to become the Adam and Eve story. The snake does this very well and also the apple and the tree. If you follow the snake it uses the tight fitting circles. Some of the circle grid or substructure is inside the snake and some of the circles are outside the snake. Even if people don’t see the circle substructure they feel the design WORKS. I would rather people didn’t know the strong circle grid was even there. The fear of the white canvas that artists talk about comes into play here, instead of making a scribble like some artist do, my scribble is a precise grid. This really gets my creative mind working and also give me back some results that I don’t expect.

    Recent Work

    I finished BRAIN STRAIN! Last time I explained a little about this 30 point perspective spherical painting. The substructure for this sphere came from what Plato called the “Universe Polyhedron,” the dodecahedron. Each vanishing point I used is found in the center of the edges of the pentagons on the dodecahedron. There are twelve pentagons on this polyhedron. I used six equal distance points for my six-point perspective. By using the dodecahedron edges I was able to have five sets of cubical patterns, each having their own six point system, all happeing in the same sphere. So this comes to 30 point perspective. When I began this concept I thought it would look disorderly but with the dodecahedron substructure it seems to hold together very well.

    The colors for this piece were much more intense than most of my paintings. I started with an almost pure palette as I wanted each of the set of six points to have its own color. I also wanted the cubes that projected to these points to be the same color. This helps people see the order. Most of the colors inbetween these vanishing points were mixtures of those pure colors. I used an orange, blue, green, red violet, and blue violet for the five colors. I used a glazing and stippling technique to do the painting. I also allowed myself to use white to mix in for some scumbling (using white as a thin wash) effects to help with better depth effects.

    Works Sold

    INSPIRATIONS FOR ESCHER sold to James R. Von Ehr II last month. Among his long list of amazing accomplishments, Von Ehr owns the largest collection of M.C. Escher in the world. It was an honor to meet him at the School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City where he gave the keynote speech at the Nanotechnology Conference which focused on the place of nanotechnology in science and society.

    There is so much good to say about Mr. Von Ehr. He founded Altsys Fontographer in 1984 and sold it to Macromedia 1995 (an accomplishment that has my webmaster in awe). In June 2003 he was awarded Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Pioneering and now he intends to get in on the ground floor of a second revolution – nanotechnology though his current company, Zyvex Corporation. He’s surrounded himself with the most prominent thinkers and researchers in the field, hoping to develop and sell the machines which will make nanotechnology as common as desktop computers are today. And now, he owns a Termesphere—which goes to show that along with his polished skills as a business man, scientist, innovator and social leader, he also has mighty fine taste in art.

    IN THE WORKS -Mount Marty has committed to a commissioned sphere of their library environment and images of Mount Marty.

    Works in Progress

    I have just finished a 15 piece one man show at Mount Marty College in the Bege Art Gallery of the Student Union in Yankton South Dakota. It was there until November 25th. While in Yankton I did a slide lecture at Yankton High School for the student body.

    I traveled then to Augustana College in Sioux Falls and did a workshop on ONE THROUGH SIX POINT PERSPECTIVE. This two-hour session included students and instructors so it was great fun. It is always interesting to really make the art students think. I have put so much thinking into this workshop that it is fun for me to share the thinking with a captive audience. They tell me I give them a Termesphere headache.

    The Tweed Museum of Art at the University of Minnesota, Duluth is touring a show called Mathematical Instinct. One of my Termespheres called FINISHING AN ESCHER is part of this traveling show. It also is being shown at Rutgers University in Camden NJ and the University Art Museum, University of Richmond VA. Sometimes your art work takes on a personality of its own and travels with its own story to tell.

    Future Shows and Workshops

    • February, 2005 – For the third year I will be doing a week long workshop for CREATIVE CONNECTIONS which consists of 150 Fine Art High School students from the DODDs system. It will take place in Oberwesel, Germany.
    • April 28-9, 2005 -I will be one of the instructors at the ALL DAKOTA HIGH SCHOOL EXHIBITION and WORKSHOP, Groton, SD.
    • June, 2005 – Termespheres One-man-show at Black Hills State University, Spearfish, SD.
    • July 31- August 3, 2005 a showing Termespheres at Renaissance Banff (Canada) Bridges conference plus Coxeter Day.
    • July 25th- January 6th One Man Show in stairwell at Washington Pavilion in Sioux Falls SD

    SHOWS BEING WORKED ON….

    • Iowa State showing at the Octagon Gallery
    • Showing of Spheres at Cam-plex Gallery in Gillette, Wyoming
    • South Dakota Art Museum in Brookings South Dakota

    “IDEA” is how I make my living—Dick Termes

    Dick’s Works in Progress

    I am working on a spherical painting, which may be titled, OUT OF THE TRIANGLES, that plays with tessellating patterns. Tessellating patterns are patterns which fit tightly with themselves with no background space left over. The basic element I am exploring in this case is the triangle. The triangle as an element, has many different tessellating shapes that can be created from it. Some examples that come out of the triangle are the diamond, the chevron pattern and the hexagon, all can fit with themselves like tiling with no background spaces. A flat painting called COMMON DESCENT that I painted in 1972 made me think about what would happen if I played with this triangular grid on the sphere. This study of triangles led me to see how many interesting human figures might come out (be created) of this grid. I am very pleased with them. It’s as if they are creating themselves. They definitely make the painting OUT OF TRIANGLES into an extremely dynamic piece. As I progress, the tessellation will create the land, mountains and sky, indeed the entire environment the human forms live in.

    One of the things Escher taught me is geometry or pure optical illusion alone can come off too math-like. Many people don’t relate to this type of study. If this same geometric world is also a landscape with people living in it, it becomes something people can relate to. The study will get to the viewer by osmosis as they look at the painting. I am very much enjoying painting this piece, which has to be a good sign.

    Another smaller sphere I have been working on was inspired by Jeff Weeks who is an expert in Topology and Geometry Software. Doris Schattschneide who wrote the book VISIONS OF SYMMETRY suggested I talk to him about tessellations. He suggested a variation on my ARROW SPHERE which has tessellations or tight fitting arrows going both directions to two different poles on a sphere. His idea was to bring the arrow out of one point and bring them back in to the same point. He says this idea is like the way the magnetic energy patterns works. I tried this and it is a pretty exciting little sphere. It is still in process.

    End Note

    The first newsletter had the thought or question,
    “WAS SIX POINT PERSPECTIVE DISCOVERED OR FOUND (INVENTED)?”
    I am going to change these words to DISCOVERED OR INVENTED to help make this thought more clear.

    Bill Fleming, friend and fellow artist, suggested he wanted to hear my answer to that question. So this one is for you Bill.

    First I want to make a distinction between the two words. The kind of “discovered” I mean is when it was always there and you just have to realize it. The kind of “invented” is not to uncover but rather to make up without the help of nature.

    I have a little trouble saying that the six point perspective concept was INVENTED when I also tell everyone it is right out there for us to see. It is hard to say I invented it when it is right in front of us. One could say, if I am the only one that could see it, than it would be INVENTED. I feel, I looked out there and FOUND it. It was waiting for me to imagine myself crawling inside a transparent sphere and copy what I saw onto the sphere. When I envision myself inside my stable transparent ball which is inside a cubical building and I turn in a circle, the three sets of parallel lines which make up the cubical room are right around me. There is a set of lines that run north and south, another set that runs east and west and another set that runs up and down. If I follow the lines they lead me to the six vanishing points. The lines that I am following are not straight lines but rather curved lines or they wouldn’t be able to go to all six points. Later I realized that there is another way the six points could be found–if I figured out the closest point between me on the four wall and the ceiling and the floor. If I measured with a measuring tape from my eyes to the six planes, the closest point to the walls shows me where the vanishing points are located. Once I think of myself inside my transparent sphere and see how images from the outside room would project to the skin of the sphere this became clear. I guess what I am saying is that I believe I discoverd it rather than invented it. Inventing seem more like I made it up and I don’t believe this is made up. I think this is how it really is. Let me know what you think.

    Thank you for reading to the end. I hope some of my thoughts will get some comments back from you, positive or negative and, new ideas. I love the way some of my math friends are making suggestions of concepts for me to consider. If you would like to be taken off this newsletter list please let me know. As always, thank you for your tremendous support and encouragement. I would love to hear what you think.
    Feel free to call at 888-642-4805 or email me termes@blackhills.com

  • September 2004 Newsletter

    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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