Leave out all the rest
If you ever want to say something that'll make me grit my teeth/clench my jaw/bite my tongue, this one's always effective when looking at someone else's creative output: "I could do that."
Maybe you could, and bully for you, but it's so dismissive of the amount of energy, effort, and time an artist dedicates to what s/he does. You may see or hear or read a "work of art," but the real work of art falls between the idea of it and its tangible end point. For example, most people who make the attempt seem surprised to find that being a writer--of novels, poems, essays, stories, blogs--requires an ongoing commitment to actually, you know, WRITING--not to mention finishing. I'm sure the same is true of composers and artists in all media--and it doesn't even take into account the time, energy, and persistence required to sell one's creations to a society of "I could do that"s.
Edited to clarify: I'm talking about saying "I could do that" not in a "I can create, too!" way, I mean in a condescending, "It's nothing so great; I could do as good" way.
Maybe you could, and bully for you, but it's so dismissive of the amount of energy, effort, and time an artist dedicates to what s/he does. You may see or hear or read a "work of art," but the real work of art falls between the idea of it and its tangible end point. For example, most people who make the attempt seem surprised to find that being a writer--of novels, poems, essays, stories, blogs--requires an ongoing commitment to actually, you know, WRITING--not to mention finishing. I'm sure the same is true of composers and artists in all media--and it doesn't even take into account the time, energy, and persistence required to sell one's creations to a society of "I could do that"s.
Edited to clarify: I'm talking about saying "I could do that" not in a "I can create, too!" way, I mean in a condescending, "It's nothing so great; I could do as good" way.