“You’re so talented!” Sounds like a compliment, right? For many professional artists, it can feel like it erases years of hard work, skill-building, and practice.
In this episode of Art Crush, hosts Fi Marks and Paula Telizyn dive deep into how the language we use—and the language used about us—shapes our artistic careers, pricing, and confidence.
In this episode, we unpack:
- The Problem with “Talent”: Why praising talent ignores the hard work, failure, and skill required to make art.
- Owning Your Ambition: Why ambition is treated like a dirty word in the art world and how to reclaim it.
- Ditching the “Little Business” Mindset: How playing small or using diminishing language directly impacts your ability to sell and price your work with confidence.
- Positioning Your Art: What watch brands, luxury items, and “affordable art fairs” can teach us about value, perception, and positioning.
- Self-Talk for Artists: How to stop bullying yourself, embrace your skill, and step up without fear of coming across as arrogant.
Challenge for Listeners: Check your last three social media posts or email newsletters. What language are you using around your work? Are you building yourself up or playing it down? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
🎙️ Connect with us:New episodes of Art Crush drop every Saturday! Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
00:00:00 Speaker 1: Welcome to Art crush with artists Fi Marks and Paula Telizyn, where we talk about being an artist, being a professional artist and being a woman who’s an artist, decolonizing our language and ideas and more.
00:00:26 Speaker 1: Hello, Fi.
00:00:28 Speaker 2: Hi, Paula.
00:00:30 Speaker 1: So language to me is really interesting and I know it is for you as well as an educator and a writer and everything else that you are. Um, I love language. I grew up with parents whose language first languages were not English. So my father was very much into learning other languages, figuring out how language shapes our thoughts. He said that, when he spoke Ukrainian, which is his native language versus English, he felt like a different person because language shapes what we perceive and how we communicate and everything else. And so I grew up with this love of languages. And as a writer myself, I really, really enjoy language a lot. fee and I have been talking about how people use language to describe themselves and describe their businesses, their businesses, specifically because we’re an art podcast. and even how other people describe artists. So for me, like I said, it’s a really interesting topic, but because I’ve returned to painting and sharing my work on Instagram and Facebook and talking about my work and everything else in a way that I haven’t done in a few years while I’ve been on and off sort of making art, I’m actually now deeply immersed in creating the body of work for our upcoming show, coming this October in Derby at Artcore Gallery. but anyway, one of the things I’m hearing a lot of, and this is going to sound very snobby to people who don’t understand this is I get a lot of you’re so talented. You’re so talented. And I understand the genuine admiration and love that comes through saying that. But I absolutely hate. You’re so talented. if you are an artist that creates work that other people follow, you’ve heard this. This seems to be a standard comment. I’m sure you’ve heard this fee, right?
00:02:25 Speaker 2: Oh yeah. Yeah. I’m sure if you’re in any field, it tends well, I suppose sport gets it as well. Musicians, actors, it’s, it’s the same for all of them. And it’s galling for all of them because of the amount of work and training and stuff they have to do. It’s not just about, oh, it’s just a natural talent. I just have to turn up and do it.
00:02:53 Speaker 1: Yeah, I think if I mean, it’s a very rare thing for somebody to follow an artist’s career from start to finish, unless you’re the artist themselves. But I think if people knew how many paintings, hundreds that I went through to get to the point where I can paint portraits the way I do, and even then, occasionally I still have fails. the talent part would be the tiniest fraction. Talent in my mind gives you a little bit of a head start. It’s like when you’re running a race and somebody gets to start three meters ahead of everybody else. That’s talent. You still have to run the race. You still have to train. You still have to know how to use your body. It’s the same thing with making art. You’re so talented, removes the practice, the skill, the efforting, the disappointment, the highs and the lows. From the experience of creating work, of creating good work. And on the flip side, you’re so talented. Also disempowers the person who’s saying it, because what they’re not saying out loud, what they are saying underneath is I’m not talented. I could never do that. I’m not even going to try. That’s what I hear when somebody says that to me.
00:04:02 Speaker 2: you have to take an account. I mean, we’ve all known Or, uh, pushy parents, as they’re called over here. But you know who try and live their ambitions through their kids. They give them every opportunity, be it in the art world or be it in the sports world. And yet that kid doesn’t make it, even though they’ve had every single possible opportunity. The difference is, is it’s not that kids dream, it’s their parents dream. And that’s the problem. They don’t have the passion. You can’t live your passion through somebody else. What you are passionate about will be unique to you. And that’s why I would always say, find what you’re passionate about and go and enjoy it. Go and explore. Make sure your work. Do your degree. Do your education. Find a way of making it work. Because if you go and do a job that you don’t enjoy or it’s all right. Then you’re not fulfilling your ambition, not fulfilling your potential. So it is about that passion and the desire to want to do more. And I think we spoke on an earlier episode about knowing what success looks like for you, but also that passion and desire has to all this is what I need to do to get to where I want to be. And I think that opens the door for another word, which for some reason is a bit of a dirty word in the art world. And that’s ambition. Why is it so wrong for artists to have ambitions and talk about their ambition and to talk about where they they want to see things. For some reason that’s not acceptable. It’s only acceptable to say, I’m doing this. This is what I’m doing. I’ve got this exhibition, I’ve got this art fair. I’m doing this, I’m doing this. That’s it. The word ambition is very rarely used among artists that I know.
00:06:22 Speaker 1: I don’t think you’re wrong either, because it seems to be a novel concept when I’m talking to artists and when I’ve talked to them in the past about what they want from their business and what they want to achieve. It almost feels like it’s unacceptable to have big dreams that having those big ambitions is almost akin to being greedy. You want more than you deserve, and this holds a lot of artists back. But it’s the language, right? It’s the words that we use. We see artists calling their businesses, oh, it’s my little business. Come and support my. I’m a one person shop. I’m a tiny little whatever. We see this all the time. It’s almost like they’re trying to say, I think I might make great art. But you know what? I don’t want you to hate me. So it’s a little business. Please buy a print from me.
00:07:12 Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. it’s almost like a pity party. It’s almost like, more acceptable to say, oh, you know, I’ve only got one leg and I’ve got sixty four starving children. Please buy my art than it is to say, look at this artwork. This is going to blow your mind and it’s going to change your life and how you think about things. It’s that amazing. Somehow that’s not acceptable to say that, because it’s seen as arrogant, but it’s okay to say I’m in such a bad way. Can you help me out? It’s about, oh, it’s all right to ask for help if you’re desperate, but not about actually, look what this artwork can do for you. You’re going to regret it if you don’t. If you don’t snap this up now, because it’s so amazing and having that confidence About your artwork is important. You cannot run a business. And I know we’ve said this before, if you don’t believe in your product, if you don’t believe in your art world, then you won’t make a good business.
00:08:18 Speaker 1: in order to start believing in your artwork and in your level of skill, you need to change the language you use when you are thinking about yourself, writing about yourself and your work and speaking about it. a lot of that comes with, pardon my French going to zero fucks because people will like you or hate you. Regardless, you can be the juiciest peach in the world and somebody still hates peaches, right? So why not just do what you want? Why not just have the ambitions and let them be jealous? Why not write about your work and talking about how you’re really proud of it. You are so impressed that you’re able to merge these colors or create this whatever. You know, why not talk about that and just show up in confidence? Because people are going to hate you anyway. Let them hate you for the right reasons.
00:09:15 Speaker 2: And are we bothered? Are we bothered that some people don’t like us? We can’t. We can’t please everybody. not everybody will love us no matter how hard you try. Let’s go down the people pleasing route. it’s like no. I think there are so many artists who are people pleasers. And unless they’ve addressed that in their own life, and if you think about the words that you use to describe yourself compared with the words that you would describe your friends and your family, they will be completely different. We can often be very, very hard on ourselves and critical, about what we look like, about what we behave. Oh, I always do that. I’m so stupid. Or I know that will look terrible on me because my bum is so big. All that is putting yourself down. So people will then look at your bum and go, oh, she is quite big. But it’s the same in the art world. If you say, oh yeah, yeah, my art’s just not that good. It’s not that great. You’re telling people to look at it as if it’s not great. So the language that you use about your art, about yourself, about your business, you’re telling people what to think every single time. So you cannot sell your work if you’re telling people it’s rubbish.
00:10:41 Speaker 1: It comes down to positioning. if we were to use an example of um, let’s say watches, for example, you know, a watch you would get from Primark or Amazon or whatever for ten twenty pounds will have a different manufacturer website than, say, a Rolex or whatever. Big brand, I don’t know, watches. when you look at the two different ways they’re positioned, they speak differently about themselves on their websites or in their marketing materials, they present themselves differently. And when you go to the Rolex site, you go to a site where you expect to be paying a lot of money for the watch, but you’re paying for the experience of owning it and the experience of having an aspirational brand. So when you put your art down and yourself down, you are positioning yourself as the person who perhaps, uh, goes to art shows where they’re sitting on blue plastic chairs or their art’s leaned up against the piano, or maybe they have spread a blanket on the ground and are selling their art on the sidewalk. And so they’re not positioning their art as something of value, of aspiration because they’ve spoken and thought about their work in themselves as smaller than they are.
00:11:57 Speaker 2: And I have to say that I think Rolexes are the ugliest watches I’ve ever seen in my life. But do they care? Do they care that I think that? Of course not, because they’ve got so many people who buy them the same as Paula and I’s favorite Birkin bags. Exactly. I do love a Birkin bag, but I’ve been persuaded to fall in love with Birkin bags because they are so good at their marketing. as Paula said. It’s exactly the same as your artwork You are persuading people that They can’t live without your artwork. If you’re not doing that, then you’re not running a business. That’s fair enough. You know, and we’ve talked also a bit about the words. I mean, I think this might be another podcast, but the words about where you show art or see art or go and buy art, which I wouldn’t say struggling, we are, we are tackling what we want to call our event in. I’m going to call it an event in October in art core in Derby, opening October the twenty third. We are struggling because if you look at sort of like deconstruct words like show, exhibition, um, you suddenly think that’s not what we’re doing. it’s not that we aren’t just showing our work for you to come and have a look. We’re trying to make people think. We’re trying to get people to have an experience. So it’s really interesting. Those words around all the art things like exhibition wise art and exhibition. Why is it not more to do with the commercial sector? It’s not even mentioned a lot of the time, but the art is even for sale. Some places weren’t even put the prices on, you know. So you really have no idea. And then they wonder why they haven’t sold anything. Because that is the main reason for these events is to there’s lots of other things that are going on as well, but they are to sell the artwork to enable people to see work and buy it. That is the business. All the things around it are really important too, but that is the fundamental aim of the event.
00:14:25 Speaker 1: as you were talking, I was just thinking that of all the art shows and art events I’ve been to, the ones that say like art show and sale imply that it’s not art for sale. It’s art cheap. Right. And that’s those are the ones that sort of go, okay, come, come to our.
00:14:41 Speaker 2: Affordable art fair. That’s one of my favorites, honestly.
00:14:46 Speaker 1: Honestly.
00:14:47 Speaker 2: Affordable art. Oh, look, it’s all under a hundred pounds. I’ve seen that recently. so you’re telling people that this is the prices you should pay, the damage you are doing by using that language, not just for the products that you are selling, but to other artists. That’s the other thing. We have a responsibility as artists to support other artists and make the business what it should be. So if you’re selling your work and saying, oh, it’s only twenty five pounds and look for original people who see that. Oh well, you can get original art for twenty five pounds. Why would I pay two thousand five hundred pounds for it? if we work as a collective, as a group of people and say what we’ve got is important, then we need to show that.
00:15:36 Speaker 1: how we talk and write and show up teaches everyone, not just artists, but teaches our buyers and teaches, um, us collectively how to treat art and artists. And it’s going to take a lot of work to do it. But I think this discussion is important because you have to create an awareness. I challenge our artists listeners to go and look at their last three social media posts, or go and look at their last email newsletter that they sent out. What language are you using around your work? And think back to the last time you talked to people about your art. Were you playing it up or playing it down because it makes a difference? Think about the last time you thought to yourself about yourself. Are you demeaning yourself and bullying yourself, or are you digging yourself up? Now, we’re not talking about turning you into a psychopath and being like, I’m the greatest thing ever and your head can’t fit through the door. But we are saying that there are mediocre people everywhere thinking they are the greatest thing since sliced bread. I can think about the dozen old men who are running this world into the ground think they’re amazing, and they are wildly incompetent. They just happen to really believe in themselves and pay people around them to say yes to them all the time, but they’re not competent. And so when we think about ourselves, we need to keep that in mind, that holding ourselves back is depriving the world of your art, of your amazing self and allowing you to speak, write and think to yourself kindly and using appropriate language will not turn you into a psychopath. It will just make you better at making art and selling art, and showing up and helping people understand that your art will change their life in some way, shape, or form.
00:17:31 Speaker 2: think about how you big up your friends and family, how you tell your children things. Then you have to be kind to yourself. It’s not just about being kind, but you have to be honest with yourself and do the same about yourself if you’re not okay. If you don’t look after yourself and what you’re doing and don’t feel positive about it, then that will have a knock on effect in all of your life because you won’t be happy. You need to believe that you are making yourself happy by running your business in the best way that you can.
00:18:07 Speaker 1: And your business is making a difference to your clients and customers. So I think we’re going to leave this episode here, but we do invite comments from our listeners to come in and share with us. How do you feel when somebody says you’re so talented? Does that irk you the way it irks me? how do you answer when somebody says, I love that piece? Do you say thank you? Or do you say, oh, do you really think it’s any good? I’ve seen that a lot. Looking for validation and pretending maybe that it’s not as good as it is.
00:18:42 Speaker 2: And being surprised. Oh, really?
00:18:46 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
00:18:48 Speaker 2: Shouldn’t be a surprise. Shouldn’t be a shock.
00:18:50 Speaker 1: No, We worked hard for years to get to where we are. And it’s expected to be good. When you practice something enough, just remember If somebody in a different industry wouldn’t do it. So let’s say, I don’t know. John, who puts toilets in, won’t be falsely humble about his toilet installation experience and skills. Then you shouldn’t be falsely humble about your art making experience and skills. Odds are John’s not a toilet psychopath. So owning his skills won’t make him into a toilet psychopath. So you won’t be an artist psychopath with a giant.
00:19:32 Speaker 2: You heard it here first. You’re not going to be a toilet psychopath.
00:19:38 Speaker 1: Yes, art crush making analogies that you never thought were possible. And we have lost fee. So that wraps up this episode of Art crush, Inviting our listeners to take a look at the language they use to describe themselves and their work, whether out loud or to themselves, and see how changing a few words makes all the difference in selling your work and feeling good about yourself, and maybe even allowing you to start thinking about the bigger ambitions and dreams that you have for your art. Is there anything else you want to add?
00:20:19 Speaker 2: P no, Paula.
00:20:24 Speaker 1: So thank you very much for listening to this episode of Art crush. Don’t forget to like, share and subscribe. New episodes come out every Saturday UK time and you can find us on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Amazon, iHeart podcasts, and wherever you find your favorite podcast episodes. We’ll see you in the next one.
00:20:44 Speaker 2: Bye.
