Art.Com Sponsored Post: Made By Hand

(From top: Convergence By Jackson Pollock; Reeds by Brett Weston; NYC Street Map by Andy Warhol, all from art.com's Americana gallery.)

I am endlessly enchanted by the handcrafted movement in America. As I see it, this draw toward soulful, meaningful objects is the perfect salve for a world overrun with the poorly made, the mass produced, the just generally shoddy stuff that we find ourselves surrounded with. My only fear, as the concept of handmade goods rises in popularity, is that the whole enterprise somehow becomes a trend -- this decade's version of "green washing" if you will. But still there's something magical about owning an object (or foodstuff) that has been crafted with intention, using honest materials. There's a little bit of the creator in the object, which in turn connects us as humans in ways the mass produced never could.

When I joined up with art.com as a brand ambassador earlier this year, one of the things we spent a lot of time talking about (and that impressed me most) was their commitment to craftsmanship. The company has a small cadre of artisans who frame all of their pieces* in-house at their custom frame shop. As this video of the process demonstrates, it's a rather lovely enterprise. Worth a watch, for sure. (*art.com also does a huge portion of the framing for a slew of prestigious museums.)