My name is Gwen Smith. I am an artist, I am a mother, I am a seeker, I am a finder, and I’m a player.
The Yoda series is a collection of images which shows the character Yoda as well as the lifespan of our child, River. My partner, Haim Steinbach, has used the Yoda character since the early ‘80s as an avatar for himself. So when people asked him for portraits he often would wear the Yoda mask. Many people still don’t know what he looks like.
We started a postcard / Christmas card project, and the first one was a picture of our cat, Hector, and he had caught a mouse. I remember sending it to my grandmother and my grandmother was like, This is the strangest Christmas card I’ve ever gotten in my life. And I said, well, you know, hang on, it’s going to get weirder!
So subsequently, each year around November, the Yoda mask comes out. River gets a year older and the series continues.
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