About the Artist

Wayne Packer was born in Jackson, Mississippi. He lived in Cleveland, Mississippi until the age of twelve, when his family moved to Natchez.

Packer attended Delta State University and Northeast Louisiana University School of Pharmacy. He went on to work at the University of Mississippi Medical Center for more than 33 years before retiring in 2016.

Throughout his career, Packer has continued to develop his work as an artist. His paintings have been shown in New York City; Woodstock, New York; New Orleans, Louisiana; Phoenix, Arizona; Jackson, Mississippi; and Ridgeland, Mississippi.

If I could explain my work, I would not need to paint it.

Artist Statement

I cannot remember a time when I did not need to create an image.

All true artists are essentially self-taught.

Intended distortions of shapes, forms, color, movement, meaning, and history lend themselves to my discovery and participation in a peripheral reality. What that is for me is not what it might be for others who view my work.

I maintain a component of innocence in my work, as I am not always aware of where my actions and decisions originate in the process of developing it.

Angst, stress, indecision, pain, and failure push craft into art.

Items in my paintings lend themselves to a less specific and more generalized interpretation. Spheres, moons, and halos lend a unity, strength in form, and an ethereal component. Pears are fertility, feminine in shape, and can give a golden quality to the surroundings. Water and below the surface are another world where not all is understood and mystery surrounds. Clouds and sky are heavenly, angry, dominant, unnoticed. Trees, foliage, and landscape give reality a place. Concrete, buildings, and structures are a history of beings and builders.

If I could explain my work, I would not need to paint it.