Built for the People
Who Never Really Left Maine
Even when they moved away. Even when they've never been. Maine is a feeling, and we're here to send it in an envelope.
Our Story
Maine in the Mail is a fun way to share the Maine that we love through snail mail that arrives at your door each month. We partner with local artists to bring you a curated, unique mailing filled with art, paper goods, and local Maine stories. We're Luke and Chelsea. We started this because we believe in Maine's creative community and in the value of receiving something real and handmade in your mailbox. One envelope, once a month, with unique items that change with the seasons.
Photo coming soon
Why Maine
Maine has a creative community that punches well above its weight. The Maine College of Art & Design turns out extraordinary illustrators and printmakers. Farmers markets and craft fairs across the state are full of makers doing original, serious work. There are painters working in unheated studios on the coast who have never sought national attention and don't particularly want it.
What Maine has is specificity. A sense of place so strong it shows up in the work even when the work isn't explicitly about Maine. You can feel the light, the cold, the salt, the pine in pieces made here. That's what we're trying to share.
Our monthly themes — winter woods, wild blueberries, coastal lighthouses, mud season, fall harvest — are a way of giving subscribers a continuing education in what Maine actually looks and feels like across the year. Not a postcard. A relationship.
Photo coming soon
Supporting Artists
Every artist we feature is paid directly for their work. We use a flat fee model for early months, scaling to a hybrid compensation structure as the subscriber base grows. Artists retain all rights to their artwork and receive full attribution inside every envelope — their name, social handle, and a link to their upcoming shows or shop.
We believe the artist story is as important as the art itself. Each envelope includes a personal note written by the featured artist: where they work, what inspired this particular piece, what they're working on next. It's the context that transforms a nice postcard into something you actually keep.
We're building a 3-month artist pipeline so that every creator we work with has time and space to make something they're genuinely proud of. We're not looking for artists who can crank out work fast. We're looking for artists who want their work to travel.
If you're a Maine-based artist interested in being featured, we'd love to hear from you. See our Contact page to submit an artist inquiry.
Photo coming soon
The Long Game
We're starting small and on purpose. The first pilot is capped at 150 subscribers — not because we don't want to grow, but because we want to grow in a way that keeps the quality high and the artist relationships meaningful.
As the subscriber base grows, we plan to open an archive shop where past months' envelopes — or individual prints and recipe cards — are available for anyone who missed them. Eventually, a full community: subscriber spotlights, artist collabs, maybe even a Maine In The Mail gathering somewhere in Portland some September.
But all of that comes later. Right now, the whole game is: find the right artists, fill the right envelopes, and get them to the right mailboxes. We think that's enough to be going on with.
Thank you for being here at the beginning.
Photo coming soon