The other day, I was listening to a program on the radio in my car, the last place, other than my computer, where I can give undivided attention. The topic of discussion was music and the featured guest was a vocalist. The guest said that there is a difference between the quality of a live performance versus a recorded one, attributable to the participation of the audience. Their conclusion was that audience participation enhanced the work. I heard the same thing once from a groupie, so it is reasonable to assume there must have been some truth to this (at least in the music industry) but I wouldn't know personally. The guest then went on to compare a musical performance in a recording studio to a fine artist working in another type of studio, which hit on two issues for me, seeing as I am a maker. The public perception of fine art still seems to be of an exclusive and somewhat mystical endeavor, even by closely creative people; and, the other is the ambiguity of the word "artist," since it can refer to anything from pop musicians to Subway sandwich workers (see nametag). For clarity's sake, I call myself a maker, which has it's own connotations, and I was just wondering what others' thoughts are on this . . How does an audience serve you? What is the function of privacy in the studio?