I was in Mineral Point this Saturday showing some relatives around Wisconsin and I always try to show people that Wisconsin is more than a big beer and cheese factory (not easy when our state is, in fact, kind of a beer and cheese factory).  The difference between Mineral Point and many art centered areas is that it’s more than galleries.  All of the artists live there and you can also go through and see many of their studios and workshops.

When we walked into Bruce Howdle’s gallery he shouted “Oh!  Newbies!” and started showing us his work.  His sculptures were huge – some 9 feet by 32 feet or even larger and he started touring us through workshops, studios, and even his backyard where he had a huge telephone booth that he claimed fell from the sky.  In his basement studio was an absolutely insane amount of gadgets, antique nails, door handles, wires, and we toured it all.  There were moments when I was thinking to myself “I’m in someone’s basement looking at things most people would throw away. 

His art, was all made of clay and it was all really messy.  There were swoops and fingerprints and mistakes everywhere and while we were in his studio standing over a huge mural of a moose destined for a log home in Utah he started talking about his process. It was incredibly interesting how well his philosophy could relate to bloggers and anyone interested in personal branding.  Bruce pointed at one of his pots that he had made.  It was covered in messy looking drawings of fish and he said “Artists can’t compete with production anymore.  We HAVE to be original.  You can go to Home Depot and pick up a planter pot like this for $20.  You will only buy one that an artist makes because it has a piece of the artist in it.  We are selling our souls on there”.  It occurred to me that Bruce was talking about what the internets have been calling Personal Branding.  Bloggers too, must have a bit of their soul in their writing otherwise there are textbooks, newspapers, and people to give us how-to’s in massive numbers.  Those messy swoops were a lot more than an afterthought decoration.  it was THE reason that pot was made and then only reason to buy it.  What artists have known for some time is that creativity and originality is the only way that an individual can compete on any level with the mass production of everything these days.  Even in the blogging world, there are content mills paying writers $5 an article (or less) because content is so widely available.  What earns the top bloggers more money for their is absolutely their “messy swoops”.

The other thing that Bruce talked about while we were at his studio was imperfection and I’ve been thinking about his statement ever since.  While I was wondering aloud at how long a mural like his would take to make the artist said:

“1 day or so”

“1 day?”

“yes, mostly.  I don’t want to labor over it.  If it’s perfect, the viewer looks at my technique and my labor.  Instead, I want them to see the energy I created this with and the concept of the art.  There is labor in these artworks, but that’s not what I want you to focus on.  I want to connect in the fingerprints and in the roughness.”

This has been sticking with me because I have been spending a lot of time lately thinking about online marketing and blogging and transparency and what it is that people want from their brands and their favorite bloggers.  I would argue that blogs are the arena with the most soul at this time, just ask any daily blogger about the blood sweat and tears they are putting in,  but what about online communities and sites?  What about advertisers and brands?  Perhaps with thousands of sites popping up every day the way to compete is to add more of our imperfections and soul to them.

On an interesting flip side, I think some brands LABOR over putting soul or compassion into their campaign until it’s too polished, too perfect, and not particularly genuine which isn’t working either.  Putting real creativity, quirks, etc. into anything is hard, but not impossible and something both bloggers and brands need to strive for to be relevant.