Over the past few years, I’ve done a number of studio visits with painter Roberta Stoddart. On one of these visits, in 2012, she shared with me, as she often does, a few of the things that she had been reading – bits of text to which she turns as guidelines to her daily living; thoughts that can sometimes affect her painting. One of those things has stayed with me for some time now: Spirituality enters through shadow. Although a fairly simple concept to grasp, in spite of its somewhat abstract nature, an unpacking of this thought can help in understanding Stoddart’s “Behind the Bridge” (2012–2013) series of paintings.

For the past two decades, Stoddart has created various series of work in which there is encompassing darkness. In certain instances this darkness is literal, as is the case with her "Full Moon Madness" (2008) series, in which the artist mined her complicated history to address – forthrightly, uncomfortably, beautifully – difficult issues like addiction, mental illness, neglect and sexism. The darkness in this work manifests not only in backgrounds and garments but, more profoundly, in a figurative or psychological sense, with an ever-present suggestion of things hidden or threatening. Most recently, Stoddart painted the "Indigo" (2013–2014) series, which, she notes, came out of hurt and grief and an eventual “acceptance of many losses” in her life. Also characterised by dark colours – the deepest, almost-black blues in backgrounds and skies – the paintings in this series often contain tiny points of light that hint not only at hope, but also at our connection into a system that is so much larger than ourselves.

On the other hand, taken on the surface, Stoddart’s Behind the Bridge series is, comparatively, full of light. First looks at this series could lead to the interpretation that the artist has turned away from a more complicated examination of self to focus instead on the simple, everyday lives of people who live in a particular area of East Port of Spain known as “behind the bridge”. When Stoddart had just embarked on painting this series she noted: “In paintings to follow, I will endeavor to create works which will in some way, I hope, reflect aspects of the lives of people who live on the fringes and margins of Port of Spain society.”

Behind the Bridge would have taken Stoddart, literally, to an area of the city into which most people would not willingly venture – and into the lives of those in the shadow. Her very act of going there to observe and document the lives of people considered to be on the fringes and outskirts of society – people linked in the public consciousness to violence, gangs and disenfranchised living – shows the artist’s bravery in exploring. This geographical exploration is symbolic of another type of exploration – of Stoddart’s ability to face fears and to step outside of her comfort zone in order to make connections with strangers as she questions the ways in which we treat others, but also how we treat ourselves. “I kind of like [this series] more for the Trinidadian feel of it; on the surface, it is very everyday,” she has noted. “My pull has always been how we could make things better collectively. A good place to start would just be to continue on this journey of trying to free myself from some of my own narrow, limiting ideas of what’s important in my own life.”

The Behind the Bridge series consists of 10 paintings, all of which freeze people, buildings and scenes in motion during daytime activities. Stoddart has said of one work in the series, Lucky Jordan: “This painting gives us a certain view of the environment surrounding the infamous landmark ‘Lucky Jordan Recreation Club’. This drinking parlour is situated upstairs at the corner of Prince and George Streets, deep in Port of Spain. Inside, the walls are painted every color imaginable, which ostensibly, should not go together. And yet, the atmosphere feels harmonious and completely original. In one room both men and women gamble wappie. Throughout the rest of the rooms, patrons consume large quantities of rum and other liquor at all hours of the day and night.”

In each of the paintings in Behind the Bridge we can feel Stoddart’s care and wonder. In each work a marked mastery of paint is evident – in her dramatic skies and her ability to render metal work, wrinkles, muscles, hair and the like with precision and skill. What is also here, and perhaps more difficult to feel and understand, is an indication of spirituality entering through shadow – a reconsidered and optimistic view of a place considered bleak and hopeless. Here is Stoddart’s transcendental way of looking at darker material in a manner that is deliberately, consistently without judgment or pretense but infused instead with beauty and an appreciation of the everyday. And, of course, light – after all, there cannot be shadow without it.