Contibuted photos
LEFT: Earl — from the series 'In The Flesh' (2006)
RIGHT: 'Bed of Souls' (1995)

Michael Robinson, Gleaner Writer

'THE STORYTELLER' offers an illuminating look at the work of a gifted and courageous painter. Roberta Stoddart possesses the uncommon ability to observe and analyse herself and others in a way that unearths elemental truths about the human condition. Although her observations usually come through the tip of a paintbrush, Stoddart paints with words as well. Reproductions of her paintings are interspersed with Stoddart's writings throughout The Storyteller, giving the work yet another dimension.

Comprehensive

With analyses from the artist herself as well as forewords from Richard Olver and Abigail Hadeed, The Storyteller provides a comprehensive view of a body of work spanning the better part of two decades. The book was launched in Jamaica late last year with an exhibition at HiQo's Waterloo Road gallery, which was Stoddart's fifth solo showing in 15 years.

Stylistically, the book shows Roberta's evolution from an expressionistic naturalism with surrealist overtones to a language all her own. The chunky figures of 1993's 'Top Dollar' series give way to the smoothly rendered children in 'Bed of Souls' and 'Tools of the Trade'. From this emerges a textured approach, evident in pieces like 'Cottoning On' and 'The Odd Couple' that pronounces the tactile beauty of everyday objects like skin or a cotton tree.

Iconography

The strong presence of iconography in Stoddart's work since the very start speaks to a need for codified expression. In early works like 'Endangered Species' and 'Rose Hall Revisited', both dated 1993, there is so much going on that it takes several viewings to sift through the information presented. Two years later, 'Toasting the Trough' and 'Privy to the Adventures of Nation Building' provide social commentary through slightly less-cryptic imagery.

Texturing

Somewhere around 1997 a texturing starts to creep into her work leading into her turn-of-the-century pieces like 'I Am' where Stoddart's focus seems to shift to an observation of reality and a Zen-like rendering of things seen. Her homeless series, which includes 'I Am' and 'The Odd Couple', however, is really the genesis of a new iconography. Roberta seems to have left the realm of the internal for the highly spiritual experience that is external. The human experience has many facets, her work seems to say, and by simply opening ourselves up, we can see the extraordinary in the 'ordinary'. The artist has made icons of human beings, particularly those traditionally paid the least amount of attention.

Marginalisation is a theme present throughout much of Stoddart's work in The Storyteller. She takes it further with the In The Flesh series and Saints and Sinners by focusing on albinos, who are marginalised by society despite being visually impossible to ignore. With these paintings, Roberta powerfully conveys the undeniability of humanness, while preserving the dignity of these 'stones that the builder refused'.

Reading through The Storyteller it becomes clear that much of Stoddart's work is autobiographical and that, to some extent all the people are her. The children with their sexuality in the fragile shell of a sea urchin, the politicians with their masks and the albinos with their beauty hidden beneath our own perceptions - they all represent Roberta Stoddart. Her discovered truths about humanity and humanness all seem to start and end with a deeply personal internal experience.

In a 1998 artist's statement, Roberta said: "I wish my work to give of itself in a pure and simple way. I am a storyteller who fleshes out what is most important to my heart ... My painting concerns itself with the potential rewards of metamorphosis, in which subjects need not be viewed as victims. Instead, they seek an innocence in which lies emotional understanding and acceptance, and a different kind of strength."

Doubtless, her work has done what it set out to do - and much more. In giving us herself like this, Stoddart has given us a vision that is common to each one of us. Through her self-portraits and renderings of life, the storyteller has painted us all.