What do you bring?

This is from an interview with Laurie Anderson in the July/August 2010 issue of Smithsonian Magazine (read full interview here.) I think she is spot on, if only because I think what she describes is what I aspire to:

What qualities must an artist bring to her work regardless of the era, medium or technology?

I would just say one word—openness. And you could also say awareness. That’s what I treasure in other people’s work—when they create something that makes you go, “Whoa, I never saw that.” In a way, what artists really do is extend your senses and your awareness of things. For me, the making of stuff—the creation of artworks—is not really to the point. The point is to experience things more intensely. I hear people commenting that culture is dying, but it’s not true. People are making lots of fantastic things. You don’t know about it, that’s all. It’s really hard to squash artists. They keep appearing and making things.