One of the highest compliments that anyone can give your work is a desire to own it. Most often, this takes the form of a buyer who has seen your work and would like to display it in his/her home. It is especially complimentary if that buyer is not swimming in money and isn't just buying your work to keep up with the Joneses (that can have the opposite effect of being somewhat insulting because you know that the buyer doesn't really appreciate your work beyond it being a status symbol).
It is an even greater compliment if the person who wishes to own your work is a friend because he/she has seen your work develop over time and has experienced a lot of it. Especially since your friend probably already owns some of your work that you have bestowed upon him/her (as many artists will gift their work to people they are close to). It can be an even stronger compliment if that friend has some knowledge of art or is an artist him/herself or is among those family members who all too often don't understand what exactly you do despite their having been exposed to it on repeated occasions.
At any rate, a close friend whom I have known since I was a child has felt an immediate connection to one of my pieces and I am highly honored. Unfortunately it is already tied up in a show at the moment, but it will likely return. If not, perhaps I will make something somewhat similar as a birthday gift or something.
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Much of my work is conceptual by nature, so one of the best compliments that can be given to that work is for a viewer to tell me that my work got him/her thinking about something he/she hadn't previously considered. Or that I had encouraged the viewer to see something in a new and different way.
For all that much idea-based work may have this effect more often than not, it is a rare event for a viewer to approach the artist about it.
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