Stepback by Olympia-based artist Denise Smith is a meditation on the merit of stepping back from the brink. Outward focus and forward momentum in concepts such as western expansion, onward and upward, and full speed ahead, inform the modern way of life, but sometimes the next step sends us over the edge. Denise Smith explored this pattern at her Tollbooth Gallery installation.

Jared Pappas-Kelley: I'm primarily familiar with your film and video work, but you also have a background in photography, opera, and performance. How does this inform your work?

Denise Smith: I suppose the forms of musical structure and rhythm guide everything I do. Music is just in us. It's in everything. Through the photographic process I recognized that I tend to fetishize the visual; I still do that. As for performance I don't know what to say. Um, well, I guess I still incorporate little, subtle performance into my work whenever I can because performance can be such an intimate way to communicate with people.

JPK: What's your most important 'job' as artist?

DS: My most important job as an artist is to try to be free and at peace.

JPK: You and I recently had an opportunity to see Andrei Codrescu perform in collaboration with the Scattered Ephemera project. What did you walk away from this with?

DS: His wallet. Sorry Andrei. Also it seems like people are hungry for stories, especially stories in which the storyteller exposes some of their vulnerability through self deprecation. That engages people and seems to offer some needed sense of human connection.

JPK: What have you been working on lately?

DS: Um, The Course in Miracles and forgiveness, fabric design and a line of clothes and bags.

JPK: What kind of work is exciting to you lately?

DS: Meditation and prayer.

JPK: How did you approach your project at the Tollbooth gallery, and did you have any concerns about the nature of the venue?

DS: Um, well, I prayed for an idea. Then I got one. Then I made the project. And, then you guys installed it. As for concerns I suppose for a whole minute I worried that the project might attract people with foot fetishes, but then I probably got hungry again and forgot to worry about it. Not that I think there's any shame in that sort of thing or anything.

JPK: The title of your installation is Stepback, and I have a paraphrased quote from you about how the world currently seems so chaotic and out of control, but that each of us needs to pause and take a step back from the void and the way will be shown to us. I'm sorry if I'm paraphrasing this badly, but for me this struck a chord about how each of us needs to restrict our negative side of our egos and take control back from the side that lets fear and our sense of entitlement chase us into awful situations like war and strife. I read your installation as a call to pause and ground ourselves and to heed the quiet voice. How would you respond to this?

DS: Um, yeah. That sounds good.

JPK: I know that you and Michael Lent have talked about starting a new project in response to so much dowdy public art being out there. Can you tell me more about that?

DS: Um no. It’s very serious, top secret, guerilla art. I can however pose the question: doesn't everything look better in a nice outfit? And, um does anybody have hundreds of yards of fabric they'd love to donate to a good cause?

JPK: I am always impressed with the way you approach daily life. More than most people I've worked with, you have integrated an artistic way of living into your daily routine, but not in a pretentious way. Sometimes you even seem to have little art chores. How do you respond to this?

DS: Gosh. Thanks. Yeah, um, you should see me do the dishes.

JPK: What's one person whose work hasn't been shown at the Tollbooth that you think it would be important to include?

DS: Yeah. Can you guys get the Dalai Lama? Oh, and Paris Hilton?

JPK: How would you describe the current art climate and how do projects like the Tollbooth fit into that?

DS: I don't know a thing about the current art climate, but I think it might be foggy in the morning and then partly sunny with a chance of rain and wind and maybe a little sleet and snow. Um yeah, the Tollbooth- I like that the Tollbooth's takin' it to the streets. Institutions seem to make art into hunting trophies. Or, maybe I'm just projecting. Do you know if there are any good, local taxidermy programs?