“At the beginning God created the sky and the earth. The earth was desert and void, shadows covered the abyss while the spirit of God moved its wings over the waters surface. God said: “Let the light be”, and there was light. God saw that the light was good and separated it from shadows. God called the light “Day”, the shadows “Night”. It grew dark and then it was dawn on the first day”. (Genesis 1, 1-5).

“We are leaving behind the realist movement. A movement that accumulated materials. There they are. Now we must start an enormous work of organization… A picture is a slow elaboration”. (Henri Matisse in dialogue with Estienne. Taken from “Tendencies in Modern Painting”, Les Nouvelles, April 12 th ., 1909).

Monica Packer days and nights go through this slow elaboration, because even in dreams images may spring up. Subconsciously present they appear to suggest a track that later on the artist may transform into a way. This change demands a spiritual light, an alert conscience and a will to organize ideas when the next composition will need a structure.
Monica Packer has made a workshop out of her whole experience, for her attitude is the permanent answer to what daily happens and so her work is naturally adapted to the flow of life when everyday brings the grateful satisfaction of its news, something that perhaps could become the matter of another creation.

Theory and technique were learned with Felix Bernasconi, Guillermo Fernández, Club de Grabado, since 1978. Packer also worked in set design with Enrique Badaró, 1997. Exhibitions, prizes and mentions have marked Mónica Packer's career, since 1982 up to the present, in Uruguay , Argentina , Bolivia , España, Estados Unidos and Holanda.
Colors and books, samples of former made engravings that had enriched her works on paper; the history, written or in images, of what was lived and known, nourish her perceptions when the artist is ready to face a new composition either in big panels or over minor surfaces, organizing on the plane the brilliance of red, yellow or brown, the signs of light, the memory of history, the letters or the abstract images that turn to the past in order to give sense to the present time. Not long ago Mónica was led from red to orange and now from that color comes the dazzling yellows that are pure light, contrasting all this brightness with brown which contains them all. And so doing, the whole organization of the work is transformed into a great composition where all the panels get unified in harmony. There is a space relation in every work; it may be confirmed between the smallest surface worked out in glued handmade papers, enriched with textures, folded, painted, engraved, written, and the single colored, brilliant background that contains them as a support.

It represents the harmony of reality. The acceptance that purifies the environment and accomplishes destiny in the high shades that mean the challenge of difficulties has been surpassed. Everything has been expressed in these reminiscences of those Tables of the Law that Moses received and that today tell, in another language, the same overcome anguish, when the night of guilt has been transformed into bright and colorful days.

Elisa Roubaud