This is a common sentence you hear as a professional artist. I do take it as a sincere compliment but to be perfectly honest with you all it also totally gets under my skin. What bothers me is the failure of the English language at that moment.
It reminds me of how we use the word “love” in English. It’s too broad. “I love you!” makes sense and works grammatically but so does “I love these shoes!” for example. And there are many other ways the word “love” is used but I won’t continue on this example for fear it will become a rabbit trail.
The problem with someone saying, “you’re so talented” is that it infers that you came out of the womb with the level of ability that you are displaying now. And if you are a true artist this is false to your own personal narrative. The truth is you are/were talented BUT the amount of hours that went into perfecting your techniques is what made you and your art what it is today. Yes, talent factors into making your art decent to look at but the years of blood, sweat, and tears is what gives you the possibility to make your art great.
I have racked my brain trying to decide how to change this complement. The best I have come up with is: “You’re so skilled!” or perhaps both “You’re so skilled and talented!” Although I lean towards taking “talent” out of the equation completely because of its over use.
Comment below if you like my use of the word skilled in this context or if you have any other savvy words for us to use to change this aspect in the English language that plagues all of those in the arts.
Stepping down from my short soapbox now.
Thanks for reading!
With much love,
Your friendly neighborhood sculptor.