Born in: San Diego, California
Lives in: Black Hills, South Dakota
Occupation: Artist
Studied: Art and design
Preferred canvas: Spheres
Favorite art piece: “Pantheon” and “Looking for the Order” by Dick Termes
MOVA Globe designs: Black Hills Termesphere MOVA Globes
Website: Termespheres.com
“I want people to see the world in a whole new way, 360 degrees in all directions.”
– DICK TERMES
When were you first introduced to art? Who taught you?
My third grade teacher, Mrs. Williams, was the first to introduce me and then junior high and high school also got me started. In a painting class in high school, I remember having the thought that I was painting a window into my own mind and now I could express the idea I had.
How is your personality reflected in your work?
I think my work shows the things I think are important. I would like the world to be organized, which it isn’t so I get to have that in my paintings.
What is the most common reaction to your art?
I think most people are amazed how my work reads correctly no matter what side of the spherical painting you look at. Seeing a painting that shows the whole picture from one point in space makes them get involved more.
How do you overcome creative blocks?
I think the way I work keeps the blocks away. I am very slow and deliberate. I keep lots of visual notes of ideas when they come to me and file them. When I am ready to start a new piece I go through the files. Sometime two different ideas can join together as one piece. Sometime ideas are so strong I just jump to the idea and don’t look through the file. Basically, I don’t remember having a creative block.
Would you re-do or change any of your finished artworks?
I have changed a few of my piece. When I have a really good idea but my technique was not so good a little extra time can sometimes really make it a good piece. I have no trouble with reworking my art.
If you had to paint only one subject for the rest of your life, which would you pick?
The interior of famous buildings would be pretty exciting.
What food, drink, and song inspires you?
I like steak and beer and a song by my son, Lang called “South Dakota.”
If you could go back to another artistic time period, which one would you go to?
I like where I am right now.
Which artist, living or dead, would you like to hang out with for a day, and why?
M.C. Escher because my mind works in the same way as his.
What is your definition of creativity?
To explore the new. To learn to play. To approach subject matter in a totally different way than what you have seen. When you look back at your work you should not see two pieces that look close to the same.
What exactly is a Termesphere?
What you are seeing when you look at a Termesphere painting is an optical illusion. An inside-out view of the total physical world around you on the outside surface of a hanging and rotating sphere. If you were on the inside of this sphere, this painted image around you would seem normal, but it is read from the outside. From any point when you look at the spherical paintings, the image reads correctly. Termespheres capture the up, down and all around visual world from one revolving point in space. Most of the time these spheres are painted on the outside so it takes a six point perspective system to keep all of this environment around you organized.
What is the 6-Point Perspective?
The basic rules of traditionally defined perspective were formulated in the fifteenth century in Italy by Piero della Francesca, Leon Battista Alberti and others. In the fifteenth century view, if the horizon around you was imagined as 360 degrees, two point perspective drawings and paintings held 90 degrees of the visual world. In other words, their paintings could capture everything between the North point on the horizon to the East point. Termes has expanded this discovery of perspective in order to capture more and more of the visual world. With six point perspective, drawings and paintings reveal a total view encompassing the full 360 degrees in all directions.
