ED QUIGLEY
NUMINOUS BLUE
     The word numinous comes from the latin, numen, and it refers to the feeling of awe that can imbue us with spiritual (or religious) emotion. Otto Frank, an early 20th century philosopher and theologian is credited with a modern meaning of numinous. He stated that the numinous experience cannot be taught, it only could be evoked and awakened in the mind. This concept of the numinous influenced Carl Jung, C. S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley and encompasses theology and psychedelic experiences.
     My show is called Numinous Blue. I associate blue with peace, calm, memories, and sadness. Originally, I explored numinous feelings in places, especially places near water. Realizing that these feelings are found inside of us, and can be in reaction to anything we encounter, I began to look at the faces of people around me and in my images and family photographs. I altered and transformed these images, finding the mystery in them and allowing them to be free from preconceived expectations of culture and time.
     Within the shared perceptions of our world, society stresses the expected and the “normal” in our lives and robs us of the extraordinary and the numinous. Think of the awe people felt, throughout history, looking at the night sky. Most of us now only briefly glance at sky at night. We will never see (or want to see) the sky as Van Gogh did, but we need less “normal” and more of the extraordinary, the numinous, in our lives.

ARTIST STATEMENT
     I began making art five years ago and I am self-taught. I have always been drawn to photography and had a darkroom years ago and I was manipulating negatives and images. My work now is digital in nature and utilizes my own and family photographs.
     I'm not a fan of reality, our shared perceptions of the world and society which limits how we experience the world. Frequently, these perceptions are used to deny the richness of reality experienced by those outside of society’s embrace such as minorities, women, the nonbinary, the mentally ill and the impoverished. Art is always a transformation and a step to the side. My art also seeks a transformation, to expose richer visions of reality.
     Digital art does not have a direct physical component that painting, sculpture, or drawing have. My work exists solely as data entered, moved and altered unless an image is printed. In the digital realm, the computer and its programs replace the palette and paint brush. I am inspired by people who made their marks and art on cave walls, and my art explores the question of what a digital mark is. My mark, in my art, evolves from collage, noise, color and layers of textures to meld, create and transform my images.