Visual Delight of Termesphere Featured at the Library

By Susan Braunstien, Programming Librarian | August 2, 2009

When I first met Spearfish artist Dick Termes very early in his career I knew his talent would make him a famous artist one day. Now, 32 years into his career, his Termespheres have been exhibited all over the world, he has been written about in numerous magazine and newspaper articles and he has completed 160 spherical surfaces.  His unique art, the Termesphere, is described on his website, www.dicktermes.com, as “a revolving three-dimensional space/time exploration of an entirely closed universe. If you were on the inside of the sphere, the painted image around you would seem normal, but it is read from the outside.”

Most recently he had 50 of his spheres at the Dahl Arts Center and currently there is one on display, “Holes to the Whole,” in the Rapid City Public Library throughout the month of August. Check it out in the study space across from the circulation desk.

On Dick Termes Youtube, http://www.youtube.com/user/dicktermes, Termes describes this particular sphere with the following words, “the holes or bubbles floating within the rooms are showing us another dimension. These bubbles expose another world floating through them. The images are coming from the inside of the painted sphere. The interior’s wholeness can be seen by putting together each of the bubble images or looking into one bubble, close enough. We are all looking for the answer to the whole. This deals with that.”

There is also a short video of the installation in the library by Termes and his son, Kabe, of the Termesphere at the library, http://www.youtube.com/user/rapidcitylibrary.

His artwork takes a new direction with the collaboration between The Hands-On Partnership for Science, Literature and Art in South Dakota and Termes to create their newest traveling exhibit. The exhibit, entitled, “Termesphere Up Down & All Around – Geometry in Your Visual World,” is designed to help students see and learn about the orders of total visual space with many hands-on activities to do. The exhibit will be at the downtown library upstairs throughout the month of August.
There are four different sections to the exhibit and it is a very interactive, fun opportunity to learn and explore different perspectives.

His love for art is shared through workshops for students. The Rapid City Public Library has two workshops planned on August 5 at the downtown library at 10 a.m. and at General Beadle Elementary School at 1 p.m. The students, with the assistance of Termes, will create 25 different polyhedron models and learn about spatial thinking and the connection between art and geometry.

Students will also understand how to identify polyhedrons as objects in the real world such as seeds, viruses, crystals, DNA molecules, plants, chandeliers and TV sets.  

You must be third grade or older to attend this workshop. Register by calling 394-4171.

Termes also offers lectures and workshops related to his Termespheres. The lectures include a 1-6 Point Perspective or a Termesphere lecture where he brings examples of his Termespheres, polyhedra paintings and the Total Photos.
Other workshops include a 3D structure where he shows the importance of regular polyhedra in creating sculptures, architecture and nature and a drawing workshop that is designed for art and non-art students that includes an exploration of cube, cylinder and sphere.

It usually takes several months to complete a sphere but the process is shown in overdrive on a  Youtube video where Termes is painting a sphere called, “A Round Town,” for the Convention Center in Sioux Falls. This video really gives the viewer insight into what is involved to create a Termesphere. Check out his YouTube page for a video called “A Round Town”.  The song, “To Life,” featured on this video, was written and performed by his son, Lang.

In reviewing many of his Youtube contributions related to his art, I thought his comments on the, “Patterns of Reflection,” were particularly lovely. It is a study of reflections of a pond and maybe it is my love of water that draws me to images of being in the middle of a pond turning in a circle looking at the trees around you and the reflections into the water. You can just imagine yourself there floating and relaxing as the natural world surrounds you.

All of this artistic wonderment is part of the summer reading theme, “Be Creative @the Library.” We want to encourage everyone to keep reading and remember that August 20 will be the 75 day mark to turn in your reading logs and an end of summer reading celebration will take place on August 22, 1 p.m. downtown and 3 p.m. at the Rapid City Public Library north location in the General Beadle Elementary School.  For additional information, check out www.rapidcitylibrary.org.