How One Corvallis Artist Is Lighting Up Oregon Libraries
100 Libraries: Healing Rainbow Light for Oregonians
For decades, people have experienced the work of internationally acclaimed artist Peter Erskine.
Erskine is a long-time Corvallis resident who has lived at CoHo Ecovillage since 2007. He is leading the “100 Libraries: Healing Rainbow Light for Oregonians” project, an effort to install permanent rainbow light artworks in 100 public libraries across the state.
Rather than relying on electricity or digital tech, Erskine’s installations transform ordinary sunlight into moving displays of color using carefully positioned prisms and mirrors. As the sun moves throughout the day and across the seasons, living rainbows drift through library spaces, creating an experience that will never be exactly the same twice.
The project reflects ideas Erskine has explored throughout much of his career. In the 1970s, he began combining environmental concerns with light-based art, responding to growing public awareness about issues such as climate change and the destruction of the ozone layer.
His work explores both the beauty of the Sun and humanity’s increasingly fragile relationship with the natural world.
That philosophy is built around three simple ideas:
Sunlight is energy.
All life is solar powered.
Everything is connected to everything else.
His approach has earned international recognition. Erskine’s large-scale “Secrets of the Sun” installations have appeared in locations around the world, introducing millions of people to what he calls Solar Spectrum Environmental Art.
Today, his focus has shifted from monumental installations to Oregon’s most welcoming public spaces, our libraries. Erskine has already visited nearly every public library in Oregon. Multiple installations have been completed, including Corvallis in December.
“My art occurs at the juncture between Nature and Culture,” Erskine writes in describing the project.
He also describes the installations as spaces where “huge living rainbows slowly glide through an Oregon public library, changing shape and color with the seasons,” turning the building into “a giant prismatic sundial linking us to the cosmos.”
Erskine is currently undergoing treatment for Stage 4 cancer, yet continues traveling to small communities across Oregon to personally design and donate each installation.
According to the project, the work has given him “revitalizing energy he didn’t know he had.”
His next public installations are scheduled for Jefferson Public Library on Saturday, September 28 at 10 a.m., followed by the Independence Public Library on Monday, October 1 at 4 p.m.
Community members are invited to attend and experience the rainbow light installations as they become part of each library’s permanent space.
We can take pride in knowing one of the world’s leading Solar Spectrum artists calls Corvallis home.
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