A life-long South Dakotan, artist-educator Dick Termes has revolutionized the art world with his signature art form, the innovative Termesphere. Over the past half century, Termes has created over 400 unique Termespheres, each one a fascinating interplay of vanishing points and multiple perspectives.

Born in 1941, Termes lives on the ranch built by his grandparents in the lower valley south of Spearfish, South Dakota. He graduated from nearby Black Hills State University in 1964. After teaching art for several years, he earned a master’s degree in art from the University of Wyoming, where he first struck upon his concept of the six point perspective. In 1969, he began studies for the Master of Fine Arts degree at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, where he further developed the concept. The California art scene soon took notice.

In an unusual move for artists feted by the West Coast art world, Termes returned home to South Dakota and the northern Black Hills. He continued working as an artist-educator through artists in schools programs and met fellow artist Markie Scholz. They married in 1979, raised two sons, and built a geodesic dome on the family ranch, which has since evolved into a compound of geodesic domes, including one that has housed the Termesphere Gallery since 1992.

With this book, author Craig Volk offers the first intellectual biography of Dick Termes and his art, focusing on the development of his Termespheres. An introduction by art critic Bill Fleming places Termes in the canon of Western art and exquisite photos by Bonny Fleming capture the unique spherical surfaces that convey Termes’s artistic angle on “the gentle world we live in.”

About the Author

Craig Volk

Craig Volk was born and raised in Mitchell, South Dakota. He received undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of South Dakota and earned an MFA in playwriting and screenwriting from the Yale School of Drama in New Haven, Connecticut. Volk spent twelve years in the television and film industry in Los Angeles, California, including time spent as a writer for the Emmy-winning series Northern Exposure. He is the author of three published collections of poetry, and his stage scripts have been selected three times for the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. His play Mayakovsky Takes the Stage won the 2007 PEN-USA award for best drama. Volk is an associate professor of theater, film, and video production at the University of Colorado-Denver.