Daydream Dispatches
A snail mail club full of imaginary places.
For nearly a decade, I’ve made little worlds out of leftover swipes and puddles of paint.
So, why a mail club and why now? I started illustrating the paint swipes left from cleaning my palette knives years ago, creating little worlds to amuse my then-toddler. He’s nearly a teen now, and over time those stray bits of paint became cliffs and coastlines and cities and bridges, with towering pine forests and at least one little explorer wandering through them all. Those impossible places have become the work closest to my heart, and I’ve heard from many who’ve found their own wonder in them, too.
Since the beginning, I’ve had a loose story in mind, or more specifically a character—a young mapmaker making her way steadily through these strange places, documenting what she finds as she goes. Daydream Dispatches is that story finally making its way out of my head.
The Premise:
Daydream Dispatches is part art, part story. Each month, you’ll receive a new Daydream alongside a letter written in the voice of the Apprentice Mapmaker, sent back to the Office of Maps, Measures, & Wayfinding. Through a bit of postal magic, her dispatches are also finding their way to you.
Still low in the ranks of the Office, she’s been handed the rather dubious assignment of journeying out beyond the maps of her home in Beside the Point to document whatever she finds. The Office seems to regard the whole thing as something of a lark. She, however, does not.
The artwork shows the whimsical world she’s moving through, while her letters record what she’s noticed there, who or what she’s encountered, and the curious details she considers worthy of the official record. Together, the two pieces form one small chapter in an unfolding story.
What arrives each month:
For $12/month, each Daydream Dispatch includes
A new 5”×7” Painted Terrain Daydream art print, printed with a soft-touch matte finish
A complementary letter or postcard from the Apprentice Mapmaker, sharing a little of what she’s discovered along the way
A coordinating sticker, because even serious cartographic expeditions benefit from a little unnecessary decoration
Each month’s artwork and dispatch will be created together, so the story you receive belongs to the world pictured in your print.
How it works:
Enrollment opens from the 1st through the 10th of each month. Subscribe during that window and you’ll receive that month’s Daydream Dispatch, which will be packed and mailed by the 20th. The club is available to U.S. addresses only, and shipping is included in the $12 monthly price.
Because these are created as an ongoing project, each month will be a little different. You don’t need to begin with the first dispatch or collect every one to enjoy them, as each Daydream will stand on its own, but longtime correspondents may notice little threads, familiar places, recurring complaints about wet boots, and other bits of the Mapmaker’s world accumulating along the way.
Still have questions? Scroll below for an FAQ that goes into more details.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Nope! When you join Daydream Dispatches, you’re signing up for a recurring monthly subscription. You’ll be charged once a month on the anniversary of the date you originally subscribed, and your membership will continue until the mail club ends or you decide to cancel.
You can cancel anytime before your next charge.
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Enrollment opens from the 1st through the 10th of each month. If you subscribe during that window, you’ll receive that month’s Daydream Dispatch.
Enrollment closes after the 10th while I get everything printed, signed, packed, and ready to wander out into the postal system.
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Monthly dispatches will be mailed by the 20th of each month.
Because they are sent as untracked letter mail, arrival times may vary a little depending on the whims of the postal system.
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Each month’s envelope includes:
One 5” × 7” Painted Terrain Daydream art print with a soft-touch matte finish
One illustrated dispatch from the Apprentice Mapmaker
One coordinating sticker
Each Daydream and dispatch will be created as a pair, with the Mapmaker’s correspondence offering another glimpse into the world pictured in the artwork.
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Each monthly print is a reproduction of an original Painted Terrain Daydream created for the project, rather than an original painting.
Every 5 × 7 print will be hand-signed, with the month and year noted on the back.
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Possibly! Some Daydreams may eventually find their way into my regular shop or other future projects.
Part of the fun of the mail club, though, is receiving each new piece as it is created—along with its accompanying dispatch and little extras—and being there while this world takes shape.
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Absolutely. You can cancel your subscription at any time.
Because payments recur on the monthly anniversary of the day you joined, be sure to cancel before your next billing date if you don’t want to be charged for another month. If your payment for the month has already been processed, you’ll still receive that month’s dispatch.
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Because of the way subscriptions are processed, I’m not able to edit the mailing address attached to an active subscription.
If your address changes, please cancel your existing subscription before the 1st of the month, then sign up again with your new address during the next open enrollment period from the 1st through the 10th.
This is especially important because envelopes begin going into production soon after enrollment opens, and I want to make sure your Daydream wanders to the right place.
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No. To keep the mail club affordable—including shipping within the $12 monthly price—Daydream Dispatches are sent as untracked mail.
Please double-check your mailing address when subscribing, since I won’t be able to follow an individual envelope once it enters the postal system.
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We all know the postal system occasionally has adventures of its own.
Because these envelopes are mailed without tracking, I can’t verify their exact location or delivery date. Please allow 30 days from the mailing date before considering a dispatch lost.
If yours still hasn’t arrived after that, get in touch and I’ll do my best to send a replacement when one is available. Because each month’s materials are produced in limited quantities, exact replacements can’t always be guaranteed—but I’ll always try to make things right!
If an address experiences repeated delivery problems, we may need to confirm or update the mailing information before additional replacements can be sent.
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Please send me a photo of the damaged artwork and its envelope so I can see what happened. If I have replacement stock available, I’ll happily send another.
As with lost mail, monthly quantities are limited, so exact replacements may not always be possible—but we’ll figure out the best solution together.
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Not at all!
Every Daydream is designed to stand on its own, so you can join whenever enrollment is open. There may be little threads, recurring places, questionable maps, wet boots, and other details for longtime Correspondents to notice, but you won’t need earlier dispatches to understand the one in your mailbox.
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Yes and no. I’ll share hints and peeks on Instagram, but I want to save the fully finished piece for a bit of a surprise when you open your mail. Once it’s been sent out and started to arrive, I might then share a little more or we’ll keep it just for us. Who knows!